City officials fired over ‘sex for deals’ scandal

A scandal involving Chinese city officials having sex with women hired by developers who secretly videotaped the trysts to extort construction deals broadened yesterday with state media announcing 10 more officials fired.

The first, high-profile case broke in November when video clips went viral online of a 50-something official, Lei Zhengfu, in the south western city of Chongqing in the throes of passion.

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Images of his jowly, pop-eyed face became targets of derision and disgust over government corruption.

Mr Lei was fired as Communist Party chief of a Chongqing district.

State media said today that 10 more district and county-level officials in the city’s government, party departments and state-owned enterprises who appeared in additional videos have been fired.

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The expanding scandal comes as China’s newly installed leadership has vowed to crack down on rampant official corruption that threatens the party’s legitimacy.

Even as China’s new Communist Party chief Xi Jinping has repeatedly pledged to strike hard against graft, authorities have been faced with a steady stream of bribery cases and other malfeasance.

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