Shenzhen mayor fired

• Source: Global Times
• [14:23 June 12 2009]
• Comments

Actress possibly involved

A breakthrough was made in the case after the confession of an actress from the mainland who reportedly had a close relationship with Xu and gained citizenship of Hong Kong recently, according to the website People.com.cn.

According to the actress, Xu gave her a large amount of money and helped her deal in “private affairs” in Hong Kong. In return, she helped Xu to appear on CCTV with the aim of increasing his prestige.

Many Web users believe the actress might be former Olympic-champion Liu Xuan or film star Zhou Xun.

However, both of the suspected actresses have denied the accusation.

A netizen from Beijing wrote on Sina.com that he felt disgusted that so many actresses sell themselves to move up in the world, while others speculated Xu is just a victim of the struggle of local interest groups.

“Some celebrities have been used as a tool by corrupted officials,” Jin told the Global Times.

As well as for showing off, corrupt officials also use “female celebrities, especially with good connections with big wheels, to expand their networking,” Jin added.

“They have common interests,” Jin said. “Female celebrities help to get access to key figures, and also provide the officials chances to be corrupt in turn.”

An Baijie and Zhang Han contributed to this story