Officials’ wives blamed for fraud

China is calling on officials' wives to help stop their husbands embezzling money as it seeks novel ways of cracking down on corruption.

The All China Women's Federation, China's official women's rights body, urged "all wives in the country, especially those of leading officials" to help build a "family firewall" against corruption, Xinhua news agency reported.

But the organisation said the wives were often partly to blame for their husbands' bad conduct.

"Some leading officials turned corrupt partly because of the bad influence from their family members such as wives and children," said Huang Qingyi, a vice-chairwoman of the state-funded body.