Police bust 62 sex trade gangs and arrest hundreds in Guangdong vice blitz
Crackdown that started in Guangdong's 'Sin City', where prostitution was rampant, will last until May and take in whole province
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 26 March, 2014, 1:58pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 26 March, 2014, 2:04pm
He Huifeng [email protected]
Sex-trade suspects are rounded up during an anti-prostitution raid at a hotel in Dongguan last month. Photo: AP
Guangdong police have busted 62 criminal rings and arrested 865 individuals suspected of involvement in the sex trade in a vice crackdown launched last month, according to the provincial public security department.
The operations have been part of a three-month campaign to eradicate the sex trade after state television reported on February 10 the extent of the flourishing sex industry in Dongguan city, much of it in upscale hotels.
As of Monday, police had arrested 865 people, including 541 operators and organisers of prostitution, while more than 3,000 hotels, sauna houses and massage parlours had their licences revoke or were ordered to close until they rectified their operations, Zheng Dong, the deputy head of Guangdong’s public security department said yesterday at a public news press, according to the Southern Metropolis Daily.
Zheng said the campaign would last until May, and expand from Dongguan to the entire province. He said local police bureaus at municipal level would be held accountable they failed to crack down on vice operations in their jurisdiction.
Fighting prostitution was a tough, long-term task for police across the province that borders the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.
Thirty-six police officials in Dongguan, including Yan Xiaokang, the former deputy mayor and head of the city’s public security bureau, had been suspended from duty on suspicion of protecting prostitution businesses. Yan was removed from his post last month. No further information was released yesterday about his case.
An alleged sex worker and client photographed during a raid in Dongguan on February 9. Photo: AFP
In addition, 854 websites and more than 96,000 public instant-messaging accounts were closed for advertising prostitution services online through text messages or internet chatrooms.
The Yangcheng Evening News reported that the provincial department of public security had drafted new rules and regulations to standardise the operation of massage parlours, sauna houses and other entertainment venues.
These would be submitted to the executive conference of the Guangdong provincial government for approval. The measures would include banning the use of VIP rooms at these venues, while operators could not switch off lights or lock the rooms while offering massage services.
Prostitution was prevalent in every township of Dongguan, formerly the industrial hub of China which gradually shifted to the sex trade as exports began to slow in 2009.
Guangdong Communist Party chief Hu Chunhua ordered the crackdown within hours of state broadcaster China Central Television’s reporting on the rampant sex trade in the city.
