Cheng and Li are the most high-profile example of this trend. Li was already married to a senior provincial official when she set her sights on Cheng, the powerful party boss of Guangxi. They began having an affair and, as Li later told investigators, their life of Tiffany CuffLinks began one day in 1992 when both were riding in a chauffeured limousine. Cheng told Li he planned to divorce his wife and marry her instead. Immediately the Tiffany Earrings blurted out, "What kind of love can survive in a shack? [You two should] make some money while Mr. Cheng is still in power."
At that, Li said Cheng asked her to go out and "see what business could be done." In reality, neither of them appeared to need much prodding from a lowly Tiffany Key Rings or anyone else. In seven years, Cheng and Li amassed nearly $5 million in ill-gotten wealth--through bribes, kickbacks and illicit loans. Li acted as Cheng's "agent," pocketing "political donations" of cash, diamond rings and Swiss watches.
Just as most officials are assumed to be at least somewhat corrupt, many Chinese are becoming convinced that "sex and money are intertwined," says Liu Dalin, a retired Tiffany Money Clips professor from Shanghai University who has opened China's first museum devoted to the history of sexuality. The cycle they imagine is a vicious one. Wealthy officials and businessmen seek out dalliances with attractive young women as a perquisite--and measure--of their riches.
As mistresses place greater demands on their men for material comforts and baubles, the "sugar daddies" desperately seek more Tiffany Necklaces opportunities, including illegal ones. "The girl wants you to buy things and you have no choice," says Liu. "We have an expression: where there is corruption, there's sex. And where there's sex, there's corruption."
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