Once-prominent politicians Chen Shaoji and Wang Huayuan, as well as former top judge Huang Songyou - who were brought down by corruption scandals in 2008 and last year - all regularly visited prostitutes, a top official from Guangdong's Communist Party disciplinary watchdog revealed last week.
Provincial Discipline Inspection Committee vice-secretary Qiu Hai told about 1,200 cadres attending an anti-graft lecture in Dongguan about the 'sexcapades' of Chen, former chairman of the provincial Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference; Wang, Guangdong's top graft buster; and Huang, the Supreme People's Court's vice-president.
'The comments from the top leaders of the central party disciplinary committee about Chen, Wang and Huang are that they all committed stupid mistakes. Party cadres visiting prostitutes is a high-tension wire; you'll die if you touch it,' said Qiu as quoted by yesterday's Guangzhou Daily.
More than 26 cities including Dongguan are under an unprecedented anti-pornography watch, and thousands of saunas, massage parlours and karaoke bars have been shut down across the country. Dongguan has been known as the sex capital of China for about a decade.
Qiu said prominent politicians such as Wang presented honest and upright images to their subordinates. 'When Wang was the secretary of Guangdong's Communist Party Disciplinary Committee, he once burst into anger when a whistleblower told him that cadres from the committee had been invited to saunas and accepted sexual services,' he said.
'Wang was so angry that he threw his mobile phone onto the desk when he rebuked one cadre. He later picked it up but couldn't contain his anger and threw the mobile phone again and again until it broke.'