(CFP)

On July 8, former Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun was given a suspended death sentence after being convicted of corruption and abuse of power. The prosecutor's statement also pointed to his "improper lifestyle," which in China usually suggests leading a life of debauchery.

In January, Yi Junqing, former Director of the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, was also sacked from his post for the same reason.

It is believed that his downfall was related to an online essay by his alleged mistress. The woman detailed their alleged affair in a 100,000-character article, making Yi a high-ranking official sacked for nothing more than a sex scandal.

In recent years, there have often been mistresses behind corrupt officials. In many cases, tip-offs from mistresses have led to official corruption investigations. A report released by the Crisis Management Research Center at Beijing-based Renmin University of China in January showed that as much as 95 percent of corrupt officials caught in 2012 had mistresses.

In May, Liu Tienan, former Vice Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, was sacked after his former mistress provided a journalist with vital information about his corrupt practices, including accepting bribes, faking his master's degrees and leading an "improper lifestyle."

China is a nation that values officials' virtues. "Proper lifestyle," a euphemism that means one is not tarnished by an affair, is a basic qualification in the selection of government officials at all levels.

"Any love affairs of government officials are easily associated with their powerful positions. In that case, they should be disciplined not only by social norms and laws, but also strict administrative orders and punishment from the Party," said Xu Xianglin, a professor at the School of Government of Peking University.

Yun Jie, a scholar with the Institute of Political Science of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said that the administrative punishments for these kinds of violations should be strengthened and that the law should be specific when regulating such issues, in order to crack down on these affairs, which damage the reputation of the government, as well as the Party.

Nude deals

In recent years, "officials' nude pictures" and "mistress anti-corruption" have become common search terms on the Internet. With more efforts taken by disciplinary authorities, more cases concerning "sex-power trade" have emerged in public.

In fact, the phenomenon of trading power for sex is not new among government officials. Early in the late 1990s, Hu Changqing, former Vice Governor of Jiangxi Province, was accused of using his position to provide benefits for his "friends," in exchange for sexual favors.

"According to my experience in dealing with cases of duty-related crimes, few corrupt officials lead clean lifestyles," said Yi Shenghua, Director of the Department of Criminal of Beijing-based Yingke Law Firm. Yi has specialized in corruption cases for 10 years.

Luo Meng, Deputy Director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Beijing's Haidian District Procuratorate, also admitted that what can be casually called "sexual bribery" exists in most corruption cases involving high-ranking officials, though there is no such charge in China's Criminal Law. "The aim of sexual bribery is to trade power for sex, which is an infraction concerning civil servants' integrity," Luo said.

"Sexual bribery is not just an issue that relates to top officials. Attention should also be paid to the problem when it affects the primary-level officials," said Yang Lin, Director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Beijing's Changping District Procuratorate. "Crimes involving mistresses have expanded from ministerial-level officials to lower-level officials in recent years."

Since 2008, the district procuratorate has investigated and prosecuted 29 middle- and junior-level officials committing duty-related crimes, among which six officials were confirmed to have mistresses.