By Li Youyou
Reports of moral corruption within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have long drawn public scrutiny, but recurring revelations involving sexual misconduct continue to provoke particular outrage. A recent investigation alleges that CCP officials participated in organized “wife-swapping” events, with individual membership fees reportedly reaching 100,000 yuan (~ USD $14,000).
From the CCP’s early revolutionary years to the present day, critics argue that such practices have emerged in repeated waves, becoming a recurring phenomenon within the Party system. Observers contend that within a political structure where even spouses can allegedly be treated as exchangeable assets, ethical boundaries have been fundamentally eroded.
Undercover investigation reveals high-cost ‘wife-swapping’ events
According to a video released by the overseas Chinese self-media account Pomu Tuiqiang (Breaking the Wall), journalists conducted an undercover investigation into an organized wife-swapping event allegedly involving CCP officials. The footage claims that each participant was required to pay a substantial entry fee of 100,000 yuan prior to admission.
The organizer is estimated to have accumulated nearly 200 million yuan in profits over a three-year period.
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According to the video’s narration, participants were reportedly required to undress collectively after entering the venue, eventually becoming fully nude. These gatherings were described as “training sessions” that expanded rapidly across multiple regions, despite the high financial barrier to entry.
Before or after the alleged group sexual activities, participants were said to sit in circles and share details of their private lives. Attendees were described as “either wealthy or influential,” with some sessions reportedly attracting more than 2,000 participants.
One participant from Shenzhen was quoted as saying: “In that environment, it’s very difficult to think or judge things as a normal person would.”
The video also included a blunt remark: “This looks like something organized by people within the Communist Party—after all, they’ve long talked about ‘communal wives.’”
According to the account, the organizers were eventually investigated and punished.
Recent and earlier cases involving Party officials
The same self-media outlet previously disclosed another alleged wife-swapping incident involving Party insiders. Leaked chat records suggest that on June 2, 2023, a wife-swapping gathering took place in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, involving individuals from within the CCP system.
According to the leaked messages, one known couple reportedly consisted of a husband working in the Organization Department and a wife employed by the Market Supervision Administration.
Such scandals are not unprecedented. In 2012, a widely reported case in Anhui Province attracted national attention. According to Mirror News Wang Yu—then deputy secretary of the Youth League Committee at Hefei University—and his wife were exposed for participating in wife-swapping activities with two other couples.
Following public exposure, Wang Yu and his wife were expelled from the CCP and removed from public office. Ironically, Wang had previously been regarded as a promising young cadre. The case sparked widespread online ridicule, including a sarcastic comment that circulated widely at the time: “The Party has finally reached the stage of ‘communist communal wives.’”
The Yan’an era: an earlier wave of partner exchanges
Historical and academic sources indicate that sexual partner exchanges were not uncommon during the CCP’s revolutionary period. Some estimates suggest that more than 80 percent of senior CCP figures in Yan’an abandoned long-standing marriages to wed younger women who had arrived as revolutionary recruits.
Wang Youqun, PhD, former speechwriter for Wei Jianxing, a former CCP Politburo Standing Committee member and head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, wrote in The Epoch Times that during the height of China’s national crisis—when Nationalist troops were fighting Japanese forces on the frontlines—the CCP leadership experienced a wave of partner replacement.
Documented examples include:
- Mao Zedong, aged 45, divorcing his third wife He Zizhen and marrying Jiang Qing, a 24-year-old actress from Shanghai.
- He Long, aged 46, marrying Xue Ming, aged 25.
- Liu Bocheng, aged 44, marrying Wang Ronghua, aged 18.
- Chen Yi, aged 40, marrying Zhang Qian, aged 18.
- Peng Dehuai, aged 40, marrying Pu Anxiu, aged 20.
- Kaifeng, allegedly taking Fang Ji, a married woman 12 years his junior, while abandoning his wife Liao Siguang, who had endured years of hardship with him.
Wang Youqun noted that these patterns reflected how CCP organizational authority, political power, and revolutionary prestige were leveraged for personal gain. He further observed that similar waves followed after 1949, when the CCP seized power, and again after 1978, following the launch of Reform and Opening-Up.
‘Communal wives’ and so-called sexual liberation
A Radio Free Asia article published on Oct. 21, 2020, stated bluntly: “The People’s Liberation Army may not have liberated the people, but sexual liberation was real.”
The article cited Cai Xiaoqian, a Taiwan-born Communist who later defected to the Kuomintang. In his book “A Taiwanese Person’s Long March: Memories of the Jiangxi Soviet and the Red Army’s Retreat,” Cai recalled that under CCP rule in the Soviet areas:
- Divorce and remarriage were common.
- Women marrying three to six times was not unusual.
- Beyond formal marriages, “secret husbands” and “secret wives” were widespread.
Further documentary evidence appears in “Collected Revolutionary Historical Archives of the Hubei–Henan–Anhui Soviet Area,” compiled by the Central Archives and published by Hubei People’s Publishing House in 1987. According to CCP statistics cited in the volume, in counties including Hong’an, Huangma, Huangpi, and Guangshan, approximately three-quarters of local CCP leaders reportedly had sexual relations with dozens or even hundreds of women.
Memoirs from within the CCP
In Revolution and Romance, Zheng Chaolin—former secretary of the CCP Propaganda Department—recounted numerous cases of extramarital relationships among Party elites. His memoir describes:
- Peng Shuzhi engaging in relationships with Xiang Jingyu, wife of Cai Hesen, and later with the wife of Luo Yinong.
- After Xiang Jingyu’s death, Cai Hesen taking Li Yichun, wife of Li Lisan.
- Luo Yinong later taking Zhu Youlun, wife of He Chang.
- Li Yichun subsequently forming families with Yang Kaizhi, Li Lisan, and Cai Hesen.
A pattern with deep roots
Critics describe “communal wives” and wife-swapping as a longstanding feature of CCP political culture. Practices such as the so-called “training of female cadres in bed” have circulated for decades.
As a traditional Chinese saying goes, “Lust is the root of all evil.” Critics argue that under CCP rule, traditional family values and moral norms have been systematically dismantled. With officials allegedly setting the example, the sex industry has flourished, and distorted sexual attitudes have spread across multiple layers of society.
From this perspective, these scandals are not isolated incidents, but manifestations of a deeper, systemic moral collapse—one that critics warn has pushed Chinese society toward an increasingly dangerous abyss.
