An official in northeast China, fearing humiliation if he could not produce a male heir, took bribes in order to pay his mistress to bear him a son.

Ma Jinhou, who was director and Party secretary of the Education Bureau of the Lingyuan City in Liaoning Province, amassed 500,000 (US$78,333) through corruption, reported the Procuratorial Daily yesterday.

The bureau chief, who is in his 50s, and his wife had failed to produce any children but he was determined to father a boy.

If he didn't, Ma feared he would be barred from being buried in his ancestral grave in his home village, he reportedly told prosecutors.

In some Chinese villages in his hometown, families without any male offspring are looked down upon, and the burial ban is considered a humiliation.

Ma drew up a document to pay his young mistress, surnamed Yue, for the "service."

However, she was unhappy with the amount she was offered and reported Ma's crimes to local prosecutors, leading to his arrest.

Before the agreement, Yue, an art school graduate, had already had an abortion and a miscarriage after being made pregnant by Ma, the newspaper reported.

Get pregnant

Yue said she had an abortion as she needed to focus on her studies and later suffered a miscarriage.

Ma drafted the agreement in June 2010, specifying a payment, to urge Yue to continue being his lover and attempt to get pregnant again.

Ma was sentenced to jail for seven years in June for accepting bribes, the newspaper reported.

Prosecutors said Ma started abusing his position to make money several years ago, after deciding to hire a "well-educated, young and beautiful woman" to be his lover and produce a son.

Teachers and principals from more than 60 schools bribed him in order to gain promotion or have transfers approved, according to prosecutors.

Ma reportedly told prosecutors he started looking for a mistress after amassing 500,000 yuan, but that the ideal candidate was not found until August 2007.

Yue was introduced to Ma to ask for approval to drop out of an art college because her family was too poor to pay her tuition fees and return to high school for another opportunity to take the national college entrance exam.

Ma succeeded in persuading her to be his lover by paying off her college fees and other expenses.

They frequently quarreled because of sharp differences resulting from their age gap and backgrounds, Yue said.