New Chongqing scandal erupts as past victims await redress The official who resigned last week, Lei Zhengfu, 54, party chief of Chongqing's Beibei district, was caught on the short, steamy video having sex with his 18-year-old mistress. A property developer who wanted to blackmail Lei so he would grant lucrative building contracts, it turns out, hired the mistress, according to official Xinhua media reports about the incident. The developer and the young woman were reportedly detained, and later released, after Lei complained to Bo Xilai, all well before Bo's own troubles began. The episode is the latest example of how average Chinese citizens are increasingly using the Internet - and particularly the Twitter-like microblogging sites called weibo - to expose corruption, and the real challenge they are posting to China's Communist rulers, who must contend with a restive population that has a new tool for organizing and expressing its outrage. The sex tape was first posted by a self-described "independent investigative journalist" named Zhu Ruifeng, founder of an Internet whistleblowing group called "People's Supervision Net." Zhu said in a brief telephone interview that he has five additional tapes showing senior-level Chongqing officials, some still in their jobs, also engaging in sex with mistresses. He said his source for the videos is a high-level Chongqing policeman. Zhu said he waited until Nov. 20 to make the first tape public because that was the day Sun Zhengcai, 49, a former culture minister and former party boss of Jilin province, began work as Chongqing's new party chief, the third person to hold the job since March. Sun replaced Zhang Dejiang, who briefly took over the Chongqing post when Bo was sacked, but who was elevated to the powerful seven-man Politburo Standing Committee at the 18th party congress this month. "I am actually giving a gift to Sun Zhengcai," Zhu said. This is a big gift. A new broom sweeps clean. Let's put out the first fire. Seeking justice The scandal comes just as the excesses of the Bo era in Chongqing are coming before the courts, with victims seeking to have their past convictions ruled unfair and overturned. Bo, once a rising star considered a virtual certainty for a slot on the Politburo Standing Committee, is in prison awaiting trial on various charges, including helping his wife cover up a murder, accepting bribes and having "improper relations" with women. Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, is in prison with a suspended death sentence for the poisoning death of a British businessman, Neil Heywood. And Bo's former police chief, Wang Lijun, who exposed the murder scandal, is serving a 15-year sentence for his involvement in the crime, and then trying to defect to the United States.