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No love for ‘affair contract’ writer
A Chinese official has become an international laughing stock – and lost his job – for drawing up a ‘love-affair’ contract that’s not worth the paper it’s written on.
Brigid O Gorman
According to the Sydney Morning-Herald, the six-clause contract, which was originally published by the Beijing News, sets out the ground rules for an affair between senior tax official Tao Yi and a married woman named only as Ms Fan.
The contract does not state if a change in Facebook status would constitute as written notification of a break-up, or what ‘punishment’ would be meted out to the woman if she interfered with her clearly charming other half’s work or family.
A government spokesman told the Beijing News that Tao had been relieved of his duties and the matter is being investigated.
Sounds like he might need a lawyer...
In fact, perhaps Tao should have consulted a lawyer before he drew up the contract, which was written on A4 paper and dated March 2013, with a blogger on Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo pointing out that a ‘love-affair contract’ is not legally binding.
This is not the first time this year senior Chinese officials have been in trouble with the law; in August a group of Shanghai judges got in trouble after they were caught cavorting with sex workers.
