Discipline inspection authorities are probing a vice mayor in south China's Guangdong Province after information about him was posted online by a woman claiming to be his mistress.
The information, which spread rapidly over the web this week, accused Chen Yachun, vice mayor of Maoming City, of indecency and corruption.
The woman said she was 34 and her relationship with Chen began in 2003, when Chen was attending a training session at the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in Beijing. "He made me light-headed with excessive liquor and I was unconscious when he took me to bed...I was 27 and he was 51," she said.
Chen spent lavishly on her and showed her his divorce certificate to convince her he meant to marry her. "The document turned out to be faked and Chen never intended to divorce his wife."
The desperate woman resigned from her job in Beijing earlier this year, with Chen's promises to start a private business for her in Maoming. She was beside herself when she found out Chen had several other women and she had been cheated all these years.
The woman did not reveal her name, but said she formerly worked as a reporter in Beijing.
She also posted photos of a naked man, whom she claimed to be Chen.
Besides the photos, she said she also had videos and voice recordings of Chen taking bribes.
The provincial commission for discipline inspection confirmed Friday it had started an investigation into Chen's case.
It didn't say whether Chen would be suspended from his post.
Chen, born in 1953, is a native of Guangdong Province. His resume showed he began working at 18, which indicates he did not receive a college education. He worked his way up from a grassroots official in his home city of Huazhou, and became vice mayor of Maoming in 2003.
Last month, a former official in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region stood trial after his graft diary was posted online by his mistress. Han Feng, 53, was charged with taking bribes worth over 1 million yuan (150,000 U.S. dollars).
