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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.

user iconBrigid O Gorman 22 November 2013 SME Law
No love for ‘affair contract’ writer
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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 clauses stipulated there was to be no sex with third parties while the two were in a relationship; they were to meet once a week; any break-up must be announced in written form; if one of the parties does sleep with someone else there will be a one-off compensation payment of $1700 for mental damage; the woman will not interfere with the man’s work or family or she will be punished accordingly, and the man will take care of the woman’s living expenses.

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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.

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