Beijing (AsiaNews) – Real estate speculation and women are the most common pitfalls for Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members. According to the Xinhua news agency, Supreme Court figures for last year show that out of 90,000 card-carrying Communists more than 60 per cent were punished for their involvement in illegal real estate deals and almost 90 per cent kept mistresses.

Since the last party caucus five years ago, a total of 16 officials at the ministerial level or above were brought down on corruption charges. Ten of these high-ranking officials removed either sold land at cheap prices in return for bribes from developers or siphoned off public funds for lucrative construction projects, a report said.

Womanising was also rampant in the mainland's upper political echelons. In fact as many as 14 senior officials were identified as reckless philanderers eager to please their lovers using public resources.

For instance former Shanghai party chief Chen Liangyu, who was sacked in September of last year for a massive pension fund scandal, was rumoured to have kept at least 11 mistresses, including a top model and a senior public official.

Former statistical chief Qiu Xiaohua, who was toppled in the same corruption case, accepted a home in Shanghai for his mistress as a gift.

Former Beijing vice-mayor Liu Zhihua, who was in charge of venue construction for the Beijing Olympics Games before his sudden removal last June, also fell by the wayside because of women. Mr Liu used his position to seek lucrative Olympics projects to benefit his mistress.

Xinhua noted however that the number of party members punished for breaches of discipline had dropped from 170,000 in 2003 to 110,000 in 2005 and 90,000 last year as a result of the central government's strong anti-graft drive. 

These figures have been released just a few weeks before the 17th party congress to show the progress of the latest anti-corruption drive. However since 2002 when Hu Jintao became party general secretary, there have been tens, largely ineffective anti-corruption drives.

Overall, actions by unscrupulous party members have caused social unrest around the country; as many 300 protests and clashes have been recorded a day. Trust in the CCP has reached a low point.

The party’s response in the last few months has been to stress Confucian values like sobriety, dedication and service. And more and more rules are being imposed.

Not only are party members warned against corruption, but they are not allowed to gamble, take second wives, visit nightclubs and massage parlors and participate in religious ceremonies.

Relatives of party members are also not allowed to get into trade and commerce because of possible conflicts of interests.

And yet President Hu’s own son won an unusual government contract to supply China’s airports with electronic equipment.