Party chief behind years of cruelty

The Communist Party chief of a poor rural county in Hebei province forced a local teacher to become his mistress, divorce her husband and bear him an illegal son, whom he then stole from her, a newspaper reported.

The Workers' Daily yesterday printed the tragic story of Liu Xia, a primary school teacher in Yimeng, whose life has been ruined by party chief Ge Hongze, who left her divorced and separated from her two sons before going into hiding, where he has remained since June last year.

Ms Liu first met Mr Ge in 1991 when she gave him nearly 100 yuan (HK$94) worth in cigarettes as a bribe to transfer her husband from the secondary school where he worked to a better job at the county Government.

The paper recounted how a drunk Mr Ge came to her house one night and forced her to have sex with him, saying her husband would lose his job if she refused.

Shortly afterwards, Mr Ge was transferred to a more senior job in a nearby county and had Ms Liu and her husband moved there. He sent for her every day to have sex with him at his home and she was too frightened to refuse, the report said.

In the spring of 1996, Mr Ge told Ms Liu that she must marry him and bear a son for him, despite the fact that both were married. Mr Ge, then 50, had three adult daughters and Ms Liu a seven-year-old son. The newspaper said Mr Ge showed Ms Liu a gun and bullet and threatened to kill her and sack her husband if she refused.