There's nothing like a juicy sex scandal to grab public attention, and millions of mainland internet users have been captivated by several of them in the past week.
An official with the regional tobacco monopoly administration in Guangxi told Xinhua that Han Feng, one of its middle-ranking officials, was detained and suspended from his post last week in an investigation by the Communist Party's disciplinary watchdog on suspicion of infringement of laws and party code.
Han was allegedly the writer of a string of explicit diary items describing sex with five of his female subordinates or colleagues, apart from accepting bribes and excessive drinking in 2007 and 2008, the report said.
The diary notes depicted details of his sexual behaviour with partners. They sparked a nationwide outcry after they were posted online last month, the report said.
The identities, including photos and profiles, of some of the women mentioned in the notes were exposed on some forums as a result of vigilante-type data searches, or 'human flesh searches'.
Another scandal centred in the Beijing municipality involved a man, identified only by his surname, Li, who was arrested by Miyun county police on February 24 for disseminating pornographic videos via his e-mail box, China News Service said yesterday.
One of the videos stars a woman dubbed 'the No1 car-show model in China'.