Behind most corrupt officials stands a corrupted family.[Special coverage]
That's the lesson being drilled into officials across China as the government steps up education of traditional family values.
In Shanghai, east China, Fengxian District added social and family behavior outside working hours to the officials' performance assessments.
Zhou Ping, secretary of the district committee of the CPC, said family values influenced the morality and integrity of officials.
Family values have been considered the most significant influence on individual behavior since ancient times in China. Now, they are even expected to help curb adultery.
President Xi Jinping stressed at the sixth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) in January the necessity of upholding traditional Chinese culture in the cultivation of good work styles, urging senior officials to highlight honesty at home.
He made the remarks in the wake of a string of corruption convictions among officials who also sought to enrich relatives and who had questionable home lives.
On October 16 last year, former Party chief of Hebei Province Zhou Benshun was expelled from the CPC. The CCDI said in a statement that Zhou had accepted bribes and took advantage of his post to seek profits for others, including helping his son's business interests.
"His family values are skewed and he indulged his wife and children," the statement said.
An investigation in 2014 also found that Zhou Yongkang, a former member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, took advantage of his posts to seek profits for others and accepted huge bribes personally and through his family. He abused his power to help relatives, mistresses and friends make huge profits from operating businesses, resulting in serious losses of state-owned assets.
Huang Xianyao, secretary of the discipline and inspection department of south China's Guangdong Province, said some officials proclaimed they were serving the people with propriety, while enriching relatives behind closed doors.
Huang Baiqing, former head of the Water Resources Department of Guangdong Province, took bribes and gifts totaling 200 million yuan. An investigation by the discipline inspection department found relatives had been a conduit for graft.
Huang Baiqing established a corruption network in his family. He exercised power, while his wife accepted bribes and their son laundered money in foreign countries.
On holidays and festivals, Huang Baiqing remembered those who had not given him money and "invited" them to visit.
