A case in Hengyang, Central China's Hunan province, has attracted public attention because the suspects used women to seduce officials and then took sex videos to blackmail them. Fifty-five local officials from four provinces are involved in the scandal, and most of them belong to the section level, the lowest in the bureaucratic order. Comments:

The case offers food for thought if analyzed together with those in which officials used public funds to buy sex or sexually assaulted young women and threatened them with dire consequences if they opened their mouth. It seems some officials are always eager to trade power for illegal or immoral sex. So the solution to the problem lies in punishing both the offending officials and blackmailers, as well as strengthening disciplinary regulation to prevent officials from trading power for personal favors.

Beijing News, Sept 29