China's betrayed wives are getting ready to fight back at the women who steal their husbands' affections by launching their own Internet campaign.

Following yesterday's revelation in Shanghai Daily that mistresses now have their own websites and are also planning a festival on March 3, heartbroken wives are getting together online with the aim of launching their own microblog on Sina.com.

The news that mistresses had formed their own support organizations and were flaunting their lifestyles on the Internet infuriated many wives.

They are even planning their own festival, on March 8, International Women's Day, just five days after the mistresses' celebration, details of which have not yet been revealed.

One woman sure to back their campaign wholeheartedly is Zhang Yufen, a kindly-looking 54-year-old woman from Xi'an in northwest China whose appearance belies her nickname of "Mistress Killer." She earned the title through her work over the past 15 years as a detective investigating more than 1,000 families where mistresses were suspected to be involved.

Sued in court

With Zhang's help, at least 11 men having affairs with mistresses have been sued in court and received punishments for violating marriage laws thanks to the evidence she collected. More than 100 families are still together because she holds recordings and video tapes which could ruin the husband's career if made public. Those men, some very successful in their field, chose to stay with their wives and abandon their mistresses.

On March 8, she is opening a refugee center in Beijing for women who have suffered at the hands of their straying husbands.

Zhang, who has a blog at sina.com.cn/zhangyufen1957, said yesterday that many women turned to her for help when they found out their husband was seeing another woman. "Some men would wave goodbye to their mistresses once they heard that I was looking into their cases," she said.

Terminator

Her work gained her a worldwide reputation thanks to the media, from CCTV to French and Spanish newspapers and magazines, that have reported her life as a "terminator to extramarital love affairs."

Zhang used many methods to collect evidence of extramarital affairs. She would pretend to be saleswoman, happening to arrive at the wrong door but leave a recording machine or a tiny camera. She would even take desperate wives to hotel rooms where they could catch their husbands in bed with their mistresses.

Physical confrontations were inevitable. She and her colleagues have been beaten up by mistresses and their lovers. Once, she pulled down a mistress's pants in the street in a public exposure of an affair.

"These were the days when we were young, angry and rampant," said Zhang, "Now we are more careful when investigating a case, trying not to violate the law."

She has begun to teach cheated wives how to install hidden cameras and recorders in their homes to collect evidence.

Zhang began her work in 1995 after a mistress stole her husband and currently she has 20 other women involved in her anti-mistress mission.