Who's cheating who in couple's dispute?
Updated: 2011-07-14 07:58
By Zheng Jinran (China Daily)
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BEIJING - The wife of a scientist said she will accuse her husband of libel and defamation for alleging that she made up posts about his affairs with three women.
"I have lots of evidence, including thousands of pictures, to prove that I am telling the truth. I can make them public, if necessary," the wife surnamed Cao told China Daily on Wednesday.
Cao will also accuse Duan Zhenhao, who filed for divorce last week, of having an illegitimate daughter and misusing government research funds.
The accused researcher from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "She is pathetic because she wanted to get people's attention through her stories. I don't care that she has accused me of libel. What she has done hurts me far more than any accusation."
His wife, a former lawyer, has been posting stories on her blog since June 29, exposing details of Duan's alleged infidelity, including giving a house to each of his mistresses, fathering a daughter with one of them and sleeping with one of his students.
Duan explained that one of his "mistresses" was a woman he hired to do his housework and he did not give her a house but sold it to her at a cheaper price. He also said he did not cheat on his wife but donated sperm to the other "mistresses" in 2004.
"His health would prevent him from donating, and through which hospital did they complete this donation?" his wife said with a laugh. "Sperm donation? Who would buy it? He treated the readers as idiots."
Cao also alleged that Duan used money from the academy to pay for train tickets and taxis for his mistresses, and said she had confirmed these with Duan's secretary, surnamed Che.
According to Cao's blog, the couple married in 1987 and lived in the United States from 1989 to 2007, when Duan went back to work in China. After her blog was posted online last week, Duan filed for divorce.
"I had negotiated with him for a divorce, asking our friends for help and reporting what I knew to his leaders," Cao said. "But all the roads went nowhere. So I had no alternative but to post them online."
Her blogs received thousands of replies, most of which supported her. But some noted that she had exposed these matters just when Duan had been listed as a candidate for academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences this year.
"He didn't deserve to become an academician," she said. "They should be models both in science and in morality."
Duan said his wife's actions had cost him the chance for promotion as an academician this year.
The institute where he works has started an investigation into whether he misappropriated research funds and had an affair with one of his students, an official from the institute said.
"I am exhausted now and overwhelmed by the criticism from netizens," Duan told China Daily on Wednesday. "I can't think and talk clearly."
The accusations and information about other people released on his wife's blog had violated the reputations and right to privacy of Duan and the other women, Li Jingjian, a lawyer from Yingke Law Firm, said.
"If the information is proved to be false, they could accuse her of damaging their reputations," Li said.