Ethics Newsline®

In other news, Chinese officials make scores of arrests in corruption probes

BEIJING
Three ethics-related stories from China made news this week:

• A teacher who ran away from his post, leaving his students behind during China’s recent earthquake, not only has become the target of national scorn but is apparently the motivating factor behind a recent revision of China’s ethics rules for educators. A draft of revised ethics regulations specifically states for the first time that teachers have a moral responsibility to protect their students, according to official state media. Teacher Fan Meizhong, now nicknamed Runner Fan, ignited a firestorm of controversy when he fled his classroom and then justified his actions on his blog, according to China Daily.
• Chinese authorities say they have punished or fired more than 40 officials because of irregularities in distribution of relief supplies following the quake, the Voice of America reports. China, in the midst of large-scale anticorruption efforts, vowed it would crack down hard on those who misused relief supplies.
• Antigraft authorities in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan are mining what is turning out to be a rich vein of information: intelligence from mistresses of suspected corrupt officials. Reuters reports that mistresses are common among government officials in China and are blamed often for fueling bribery because of their financial demands on their powerful boyfriends. State media say at least 80 percent of the officials charged with corruption in Dongguan had mistresses, and those mistresses gave up important information that otherwise would have been difficult to obtain.

Sources: BBC, June 28 — Reuters, June 26 — China Daily, June 26.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, June 23 — Related Newsline story, June 16 — Related Newsline story, June 9 — Related Newsline Commentary, June 2 — Related Newsline story, May 27.