Results tagged “prostitution”

• A recent prostitution bust in Henan has gotten netizens into a fury... against the police, who were videotaped interrogating a naked woman in an incredibly rough fashion. [CNNGo]
• We can't get enough of stories about the Chongqing corruption trials, so we're glad we get to hear two of our favorite China journalists, Paul French and Malcolm Moore, discuss "China's Chicago." [Ethical Corp]
• So how are Chinese propaganda departments dealing with new media rules that don't allow them to really "stop" people from being interviewed? By wining and dining reporters and other "soft" forms of intimidation. [Telegraph]

The Chinese economy boom has helped increase numbers of both great and not-so-great things. On one hand, you've got rising literacy rates, development and internet penetration. On the other hand, you also get more pollution, city overcrowding and... syphilis. According to the World Health Organization, cases of the STD are now growing by 30% a year, and it's all because of migrant workers who now make enough money to hire more prostitutes. All the more reason to take up Zhang Feng's proposal and give them sex toys, eh?

Communist officials are being warned to just say "No" to escort girls after recent scores of corruption and criminal cases involving officials and ladies of the night (including, we suppose, the ongoing charges against Chongqing's highest judicial official, Wen Qiang, who regularly sought out underaged girls and starlets). According to Li Yuanchao, a top member in the CPC Central Committee, "Party officials ought to stay away from vulgar venues and are not allowed to visit 'sanpei xiaojie' (female escorts) for entertainment." Good luck enforcing that one, guys.

We're hearing rumors that Shanghai's premier street of sleaze may have finally gotten the red stamp. A tipster rode by Tongren Lu earlier today and found that a big Expo wall had been put up in front of it. Simple renovations or did the Jing'an authorities decide that ladies of the night weren't what they wanted the city to sling - even if it's always been a big hit with the foreigners? UPDATE: We went to check it out ourselves last night. It seems that the strip is still alive and well - the Expo work is happening to the building next to it.

Five sex slaves, including two minors, have been rescued from Changning, according to Shanghai Daily. They had been abducted from their home provinces and forced into prostitution here in Shanghai. Police arrested 24 suspects and pinpointed a total of seven gangs as the masterminds behind this human exploitation operation, and also arranged raids in Hubei to catch another gang. Let's hope that these women can now return to their home provinces and live unthreatened - and maybe, one day, we can actually put some sensible laws on prostitution in place to make sure that stories like this are much more rare.

• On the Arrest and Detention of a Man in China…As Documented By His Wife [Aimee Barnes] "This evening I picked up on a simple tweet from Beijing-based @niubi who wrote: “beijing haze: Arrest and Detention http://bit.ly/T9ENI wife blogs trying 2 get hubby out of beijing jail 4 seeing hooker….” While sexcapades with consequence in China aren’t altogether unusual, this particular storyline written from a wife’s perspective happened to catch my attention. I therefore proceeded to check out the links provided which led me to the blog, Beijing Haze, launched less than a month ago by an American woman..."
• Beijing sets 'recycling' day and offers door-to-door collection [China.org.cn] "Beijing's eight urban districts have set down the last Saturday of each month to collect recyclable waste materials such as used paper and plastic bottles. On Saturday municipal authorities set up 18 collection spots in various city communities and made public contact numbers for collection companies designated for each district. Now residents can enjoy door-to-door service by making a phone appointment with collection agencies."
• China Concubines Return Thanks To Increasing Capitalism [Huffington Post] "Concubines are no longer kept hidden away behind closed doors. In modern China's far more open society, concubines can be seen in the shopping malls and cafes of the cities, especially in the south, where there are thousands of what are known as "er nai" or "second breast". By some estimates, more than 90 per cent of the country's most senior officials punished on serious graft charges in the past five years have kept mistresses."

A male prostitute has now been charged for knowingly spreading the AIDS virus in a highly unusual case, according to Shanghai Daily. Huangpu District prosecutors arrested the prostitute, named Zhang, after he got into a heated argument with a potential John over the price of sex. Zhang had tested positive for AIDS in February, but continued to work as a prostitute because he “didn't think much about the consequences... [he] just wanted excitement.” The rest of the article is a bit of a wash, calling this the first type of this case “this year.” This year? You sure it isn't “ever?”

When one thinks of scandalous lifestyles, university professors probably don't come to mind. But little did you know that once those books and thick-lensed glasses are put away, the real fun begins. In the past few weeks, Beijing University has been hit with two scandals involving both real and not-so-real professors.

In May, two sisters who were attending an elementary school in Kunming, Yunnan, were suddenly arrested by the police. Their charge: prostitution. The girls' parents were also caught and beaten for allegedly attacking police officers.

Recently, after pressure from sex workers for protection rights, the government in Taiwan has taken steps toward legalizing prostitution. In six months' time, sex workers in Taiwan will no longer be prosecuted for their trade, and a red-light district may be set up in the capital, Taipei. While it is obviously controversial, we thought we would take a look at the debate for decriminalized prostitution, and what legislation in our neighbor across the strait might mean for us mainlanders.

• Michael Jackson and China [Global Times] "Legends of the ilk of Michael Jackson die to leave behind both a legacy and an influence. For China, it is the latter, which is being discussed passionately today among thousands of his fans here after the music icon has passed away in a sudden cardiac arrest. There are all kinds of reactions to Michael Jackson's death here: shock, disbelief, grief or the feeling of being lost. But Ding Dawei, one of his numerous Chinese fans born in late 1960s, said he should have died a long time ago."
• Snitching for China leads to sorrow and exile [The Associated Press] "Dozens of small white scars mark the inside of Li Yuzhou's left arm, where he slashed himself repeatedly with a piece from a broken tea cup. The scars speak of his terror of being deported from Thailand back to China. Li has more reason to fear than most: He used to be an informant for China's secret police. When he learned his snitching had sent four innocent people to jail, he fled to Thailand. But now, after eight years, he and his family face being sent back to China, with his betrayals following them — first of his friends, and then of the Chinese government."
• Youth feel pressure of looking after aging parents [China Daily] "These young people were born into only-child families in the late 70s and early 80s under the national family planning policy and they now face the task of looking after two parents due to traditional filial piety as well as inadequate public services for aging people. A recent survey published by China Youth Daily found that nearly 70 percent of these young people feel incapable of taking good care of their parents because of pressures they face at work."

According to Netease.com, netizens are now undertaking a "human flesh search" for a deputy director general in Wenzhou, after an anonymous net post on a Wenzhou BBS claimed that the official raped a 14-year-old girl earlier this week.

Hundreds of parents set to the streets on April 15th in a peaceful march, begging for help in finding their missing children. Originally reported by the New Express (translated by Danwei), the parents claim that about 1,000 children have gone missing from the Dongguan area since 2007. At their wits end, they've set out to draw more attention to the apparent, widespread abduction problem.

Scared of AIDS? You should be. HIV/AIDS was the leading cause of death in China last year compared with other infectious diseases, claiming almost 7000 people's lives in the first nine months of 2008. China's Ministry of Health said that until three years ago, fewer than 8000 people altogether had died from HIV/AIDS. Now the total has risen to five times that many. The main cause of transmission has switched from needle use to unsafe sex. Something to think about next time you watch your friend have one too many drinks on Tong Ren Lu. Source: BBC

The Shanghai Daily reports that a 40 year old man has been arrested in Nanjing for "forcing dozens of young men" to provide gay sex services, some of whom he also forced to have sexual relations with himself. Citing the Yangtze Evening News, the report said "about 80 percent of [the man's] 'little brothers' were not gay but were forced or fooled into joining the business. The youngest was only 18." The operation supposedly catered to over 100 clients a day including "a professor from a prestigious university in Nanjing... and local government officials" (were they caught, we wonder?) who paid RMB300 for their first visit and RMB200 for repeat visits. The man took a 30% cut from his sex workers and reportedly even charged them RMB10 per condom if they asked for it.

A Shanghainese woman by the name of Wang Min has been charged with operating brothels that fronted as bars in the wealthier parts of the Afghan capital, Kabul, and bringing unemployed women, all past 40 years of age, from Chongqing to work at the bars. She was sentenced to 11 years in jail and her accomplice six years. The judgement was meted out in China after the pair were extradited back home earlier this year. [Source]