Bo Xilai’s Chongqing Hit Anew by Sex Scandal
The dirty tales from Chongqing appear far from over. The bustling Chinese city hit international headlines this year when its chief, Bo Xilai, was unceremoniously sacked by his peers in the Chinese Politburo for allegedly engaging in corrupt and immoral activities.
Last week, the Chongqing branch of China's Communist Party booted out a key member following the emergence of a sex tape that quickly caught the attention of the country's increasingly active netizens.
Lei Zhengfu, a 54-year-old district boss in Chongqing was fired last week, according to The Daily Telegraph, for his 'starring role' in a home-made sleazy movie that also featured an 18-year-old girl.
The short clip was uploaded by crusading Chinese journalist Zhu Ruifeng, who told The Telegraph that his move was motivated by a recent declaration from new Chinese President Xi Jinping that China will weed out corrupt officials from the party without reservation.
Mr Zhu was further emboldened when Mr Bo's replacement had vowed to combat the very reason that his predecessor's rising political fortunes suddenly tapered off - corruption.
"I chose to post the video on the same day that the new party chief of Chongqing, Sun Zhengcai, made a speech about fighting corruption," the journalist said.
He added that more incriminating clips will be released soon that will implicate other Chongqing officials, likely adding to the heads of Mr Bo and Mr Lei that already rolled.
The sex tape where Mr Lei figured prominently tells of the inner-workings of corrupt businessmen who used the allure of young woman to extract juicy contracts from susceptible government officials, local media reports said.
The young woman on the sex tape, for instance, was a 'hired' talent that was ordered by a local property developer mogul in Chongqing to 'work' on Mr Lei and put him in a vulnerable situation, thus the production of the sex tape.
Citing a blog post that she herself wrote, news reports identified the woman as Zhao Hongxia, who works as a nurse.
In her blog, Ms Zhao admitted that she accepted 50,000 Yuan to sleep with Mr Lei with specific instructions to film the 'encounter' secretly. The deal happened five years ago, she added.
And such occurrences, according to Mr Zhu, seemed prevalent on certain business operators, in which they contracted the services of young sex workers to serve as 'honey traps', with the resulting relationship they can then use as leverage to win business favours.
"Companies realised that some times beautiful girls work better than cash bribes ... So they hired girls to be mistresses for officials who have control over certain projects," The Telegraph quoted Mr Zhu as saying.
Meanwhile, Mr Sun, the man who took over from Mr Bo, has ordered for a deeper probe on the sex tape scandal in light of Mr Zhu's claims that what the public has seen is just the tip of the iceberg.