Ex-Guangzhou vice mayor paid mistress HK$17 million in ‘break-up fees’

Former Guangzhou vice-mayor Cao Jianliao spent HK$17 million to break up with his mistress, a documentary by Guangdong province’s discipline body has revealed.

Reading Time:2 minutes

Former Guangzhou deputy mayor Cao Jianliao stepped down last December amid graft probe. A new documentary revealed his dissipated private life.

Published: 6:45pm, 18 Sep 2014Updated: 8:57am, 19 Sep 2014

Former Guangzhou vice-mayor Cao Jianliao spent HK$17 million to break up with his mistress, a documentary by Guangdong province’s discipline body has revealed.

According to China Business News, the documentary was part of a scheme by Guangdong’s commission for discipline inspection to educate officials amid an ongoing anti-corruption campaign by President Xi Jinping.

“I never took small bribes. I aim for the big ones,” Cao was said to have confessed on camera.

The documentary said Cao met his mistress in 1992 while she was still a college student. Even after their relationship ended, he helped her immigrate to an unspecified country, and paid her twice – HK$8 million and HK$9 million – as “break-up fees”.

It also unveiled Cao’s decadent private life. He was said to have had affairs with 11 women since 1988, with his sex partners ranging from government officials, his work associates, company executives, restaurant managers and staff at a tennis shop.

Cao was removed from his post last December and was placed under a graft investigation linked to a controversial village redevelopment project.