They are doll-like young women who drive sporty red Toyotas, stride through shopping plazas in high heels and go home to smart flats. They are also pretty women who stay at home, put the baby to bed and don delicate lingerie.

This is not the modern Chinese wife. She is the trophy mistress, the must-have accou-trement for any successful businessman or enterprising Communist official.

So prevalent are they that one Beijing lawyer has set up a website calling for better legal rights for theernai— or second wives. The site, at 2n88.com, states: “Second wives are people, with human rights.”

Zheng Baichun did not expect the huge response he has received from women who feel that they have been used or abused by the man who kept them in a manner to which they became accustomed. He said: “Now we are riding a tiger and can’t get off. If I don’t help then I feel bad because there are so many weak women.”

A recent survey found that 95 per cent of all officials convicted of corruption in China kept a mistress.

In the booming coastal cities of Guangzhou, Zhuhai and Shenzhen, every official who was the subject of an investigation had a mistress.

In the past, traditional Communist Party secrecy hid the private affairs of government officials. But in recent months, as more such scandals have exploded during a renewed government crackdown on corruption, the sleazy lives of officials have been exposed on internet chat rooms and even in state-owned newspapers.

The authorities issued a directive last year stating that any official found to be having an extramarital affair would not be considered for promotion.

But earlier moves, such as a 2001 change to the Marriage Law that equated keeping a mistress with the crime of bigamy, had scant impact.

Many mistresses are not pampered playthings, but the daughters of peasants. Mr Zheng admits that his clients are not in a strong legal position, but he settles most cases out of court because the men want to avoid any hint of scandal.

Dangerous liaisons

Liu Jinbao Former head of the Bank of China in Hong Kong spent £400,000 on cosmetic surgery to change one of his mistresses into a copy of his first

Chen Liangyu Former Mayor of Shanghai, the most powerful official in a decade to be charged with corruption, was rumoured to have kept 11 mistresses

Vice-Admiral Wang Shouye Former deputy commander of the Chinese Navy, arrested after a scorned mistress informed the authorities of an improper relationship with the 62-year-old officer

Times Recommends

• Please help: maimed children of war want their lives back
• Cabal seizes diamond riches to buy power
• White House gatecrashers got to the president