Despite the fact that prostitution is illegal, China’s sex trade has become big business. For a country that often views the topic of sex as taboo, the sex trade in China is both prevalent and an open secret. It seems to have become so commercialized that it has even become part of the corporate scene.

The link between sex and business seems to be somewhat of an open secret. It exists, but few seem willing to discuss it openly, particularly when sex is used as part of business negotiations.

The number of women employed in China’s sex trade industry is estimated in the millions. In Beijing alone, there are 90,000 prostitutes and over 5,000 sex shops, which have opened up over the past decade. Research suggests that 50% of Beijing’s prostitutes still do not insist clients use condoms. Although China’s statistics on HIV/AIDS cases are hazy, the health risks are certainly alarming.

The common lingo for establishments where such services are available are well known to both locals and foreigners. Barbershop, massage parlour, KTV (karaoke bars); all are code words for places to go for a happy ending. A patron no longer needs to only look for the unscrupulous, rent-by-the-hour hotels, as these establishments are packaged much more professionally these days. Moreover, the extent of business travelers’ expectations for visits to sex trade workers has long since prompted mainstream hotels to incorporate the sex industry into their services (albeit in a hush-hush sort of way).

It is not printed in any hotel amenities publications, and it will never be found as part of the handy guest guide sitting on the desk in suites; but a solo male traveler may get a surreptitious knock on the door in the middle of the night by a young woman offering an in-room massage. Or for those less brazen hotels, they may opt for a more subtle midnight phone call. These tactics are so widely known that they are written about in guide books. Even the most upscale bars and clubs are frequented regularly by a steady stream of prostitutes looking for business.

The link between the sex trade industry and businesses is so pervasive that when it is required to entertain clients, that often includes bringing clients to establishments offering sexual services. And it is not as if only shady businesses or small companies would ever consider participating in such activities, because even large corporations that are household names do so as well. None will admit to doing so of course, but consider it part of the open secret.

Police will launch a nationwide crackdown on prostitution, referred to as a malignant tumor on society, until October.

In recent years, police have investigated approximately 140,000 cases of prostitution annually, according to data by the Ministry of Public Security. Nearly 250,000 peope, which include prostitutes and clients, are suspected to be involved annually. The ministry said it looks into about 383 cases each day.

The three-month crackdown by the Central Committee for Comprehensive Management of Public Security and the ministry started this past weekend and will continue until October, ahead of the 60th anniversary celebration of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The two agencies will clamp down on anyone who organizes and forces women into prostitution, the ministry said on its website.

Three kinds of violators will be targeted: individuals or groups who force, tempt, permit or introduce women to prostitution; operators of entertainment venues that permit or introduce prostitution; and anyone who conducts illegal activities with minors.

The security agencies also listed three kinds of locales as high-risk: entertainment venues such as dance halls and nightclubs; service businesses such as beauty salons and massage parlors; and public places such as hotels, restaurants and rental houses, according to a statement by the ministry.

Chen Jiping, vice-director of the security committee, said: Prostitution has become a severe social issue and tangible results should be achieved with this new crackdown. Prostitution has grown in recent years, according to the ministry.

He required the police departments in the country to call upon the public in helping them in the crackdowns.

Police in Beijing have arrested more than 1,100 suspects in connection with prostitution rings, many housed in high-end saunas and entertainment venues in China's capital, state press said.

During the one-month crackdown, dozens of high-end nightclubs and karaoke bars were shut down, as well as more than 250 hair salons, the China Daily said.

Customers are usually very rich and they pay at least 20,000 yuan (2,900 dollars) for membership and then they will be eligible for special services, the paper quoted one nightclub manager surnamed Ma as saying.

Police officials claimed that most of the nightlife spots offering prostitutes to clients were run by organised crime gangs. [They probably define organised crime gangs as people who run businesses involving prostitution and the like]

Following 30 years of booming economic growth, prostitution has flourished.

Three months into a crackdown against prostitution and gambling, a senior officer says police have a clear idea of how the businesses are carried out in Beijing - and a firm resolve to stamp them out.

Qian Jin, vice-head of the Security Corps within the city's Public Security Bureau, told METRO that the operation that started April 14 has involved 9,000 police officers. Qian said 100 officers hit the streets each night along with 30 plain-clothes colleagues. They have hassled 2,000 KTV (karaoke) clubs and bath houses in the city looking for people enjoying themselves.

Qian said: We are determined to put an end to the following five illegal activities in the entertainment places. I am referring to organizing, housing and offering prostitution; staging obscene shows; setting up casinos; operating irregularly; and managing a business without qualified documents, such as the permits from the environmental and cultural departments.

Qian said the police raids on KTVs have found that many are operated irregularly, incorporating such things as security doors and alarm systems to make people aware of raids who are deeper inside the building. Some, he said, have closed for redecoration during the crackdown but have continued to provide sex services for their members.

He said police have also uncovered other deficiencies in the businesses such as broken equipment, poor security practices, a lack of required video surveillance technology, loose management practices and even illegally stored knives and rubber staffs kept as weapons.

He continued that police will step up the crackdown by continuing to target KTVs and bath houses, this time concentrating on checking employee authorization cards (IC cards) and ensuring workers do not have criminal records connected to prostitution, gambling or drug addiction: The IC card is a magnetic card carrying their real names that can show if they have a criminal record, especially for pornography. If so, according to Chinese law, they are prohibited from engaging in the entertainment industry. They are required to swipe their cards when they go to work each day, so we can get a timely grasp of their tracks.

Qian said entertainment places must also employ qualified security guards from formal security companies who have received state training.

Also, entertainment venues are required by law to have a fully functioning CCTV system capable of storing a clear image for 30 days. They are, however, not allowed to set up cameras near the entrance and exit to watch out for the police, he said.

Businesses that fail to meet these obligations can be fined and have their business licenses suspended for up to six months. And enterprises that have their licenses pulled twice in the space of two years and those that have them pulled three times in total will have their licenses revoked, he said.

Police plan to carry out a one-month clean-up of city bars. Since the crackdown and the tighter regulation of the city's KTV clubs and bath houses, prostitutes have begun to flow to the bars and have continued to engage in prostitution, Qian said.

Handcuffed, shoeless and tied to a rope, these girls are being led through the streets of China as part of a police crackdown against prostitution.

But the images of the girls being frogmarched down the Guangzhou road - with their shoes removed to stop them running away - have shocked many in China.

An outraged Chinese woman named Wan Yu took the images on her mobile phone and posted on the web.

A police spokesman defended the broad daylight action saying that the public humiliation of the women and their customers would have been a further deterrent to other people considering getting involved in prostitution.

Update: Police Slavers Banned from Displaying their Wares

29th July 2010. Based on article from shanghaiist.com

It's taken a while, considering public opinion had already turned against the practice years ago, but the Ministry of Public Security has finally issued an edict saying that police around the country are no longer allowed to publicly shame prostitutes and johns as a method of stopping the acts from happening.

According to a circular issued by the Ministry of Public Security, provincial security departments must absolutely not conduct activities such as prostitute parades, or anything else that would undermine human dignity, while cracking down on prostitution in their respective cities.

Guangdong police in Dongguan came under fire after they released pictures of prostitutes they caught handcuffed and barefoot, led through the streets on a rope. Dongguan police backpedaled quickly, arguing that they hadn't meant to publicly shame anyone, and this was just standard protocol that happened to be photographed and that the media put up.

A crackdown on China's fast-growing sex industry has prompted a backlash, with sex workers demonstrating for the legalisation of prostitution and an outcry about the treatment of women suspects.

The protest in Wuhan is thought to have been the first of its kind in the country. The small group of women asked onlookers to sign a petition calling for an end to discrimination against sex workers and the scrapping of anti-prostitution laws.

Our society has many problems that are neglected by the public and prostitution is one of them, Ye Haiyan, the activist and sex worker at the forefront of last week's demonstration. She said police had detained her for a few days for her part in the protest.

Prostitution is widespread and blatant in China, despite frequent crackdowns. Many hotels, hairdressers, massage parlours and karaoke bars make little effort to disguise illicit activity. The World Health Organisation has estimated the country has 4 million sex workers, but academics have suggested the figure is higher.

In May, state media said police had arrested 1,100 suspects from high-end establishments in Beijing alone. But pink-lit hairdressers and massage facilities appear to be operating unhindered in the capital and elsewhere.

Ye, who tweets and blogs under the name Hooligan Sparrow, said the police campaign was harming the health of workers. She launched the Chinese Women's Rights Workshop, distributing condoms and Aids-prevention pamphlets to brothels in Wuhan. But she said that sex workers were now reluctant to use condoms for fear they would be used as evidence of prostitution. On her website she said she also decided to speak out after seeing women publicly humiliated following police raids.

Zheng Huang, of Shanghai Leyi – an NGO supporting male sex workers – said the crackdown was the most significant for at least a decade. He believed prostitutes have become more vulnerable because they are moving around to avoid police. He said: Sex workers just need to regain the rights they are supposed to have rather than asking for more rights. For example, many prostitutes do not dare to call the police when they get robbed, because they are afraid of being arrested for their job.