Prostitution in China

Following the proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, local government authorities were charged with the task of eliminating prostitution. One month after the Communist takeover of Beijing on 3 February 1949, the new municipal government under Ye Jianying announced a policy to control the city's many brothels. On 21 November, all 224 of Beijing's establishments were shut down; 1286 prostitutes and 434 owners, procurers, and pimps were arrested in the space of 12 hours by an estimated 2400 cadres.[4]

Due to the enormity of social issues that had to be addressed, and the limited budgets and human resources of local governments, most cities adopted the slower approach of first controlling and then prohibiting brothel-prostitution.[5] This method was used in Tianjin, Shanghai and Wuhan.[6] Typically it involved a system of governmental administration which controlled brothel activities and discouraged male patrons. The combined effect of such measures was to gradually reduce the number of brothels in each city until the point where a "Beijing-style" closure of the remaining brothels was deemed feasible and reeducation could begin. Reeducation programs were undertaken on the largest scale in Shanghai, where the number of sex workers had grown to 100,000 following the Second Sino-Japanese War.

By the early 1960s, such measures had basically wiped out visible forms of prostitution from mainland China. According to the People's Republic of China (PRC) government, venereal diseases were almost eliminated from the mainland contemporaneously with the control of prostitution. To mark this victory, all 29 venereal disease research institutes were closed in 1964.

In accordance with Marxist theory, women who sold sex were viewed as being forced into prostitution in order to survive. The eradication of prostitution was thus vaunted as one of the major accomplishments of the Communist government and evidence of the primacy of Chinese Marxism.[7][8] Prostitution did not exist as a serious object of concern in China for a period of nearly three decades. Recent studies have demonstrated, however, that the disappearance of prostitution under the Maoist government was far from complete.[9][10] Pan Suiming, one of China's leading experts on prostitution, argues that "invisible" prostitution — in the form of women providing sexual services to cadres in exchange for certain privileges — became a distinctive feature of Maoist China, particularly towards the end of the Cultural Revolution.[11]

The resurgence of prostitution in mainland China has coincided with the introduction of Deng Xiaoping's liberalisation of Chinese economic policy in 1978. According to the incomplete statistics composed on the basis of nationwide crackdowns, the rate of prostitution in China has been rising every year since 1982.[12] Between 1989 and 1990, 243,183 people were apprehended for prostitution-related activities.[13] Zhang Ping estimates that such police figures only account for around 25–30 percent of the total number of people who are actually involved.[14] Prostitution is an increasingly large part of the Chinese economy, employing perhaps 10 million people, with an annual level of consumption of possibly 1 trillion RMB.[15] Following a 2000 police campaign, Chinese economist Yang Fan estimated that the Chinese GDP slumped by 1%, as a result of decreased spending by newly unemployed female prostitutes.[15]

The revival of prostitution was initially associated with China's eastern, coastal cities, but since the early 1990s at least, local media have reported on prostitution scandals in the economic hinterlands, incorporating such remote and underdeveloped regions as Yunnan,[16] Guizhou, and Tibet.[17] In the 1980s, the typical seller of sex was a poorly educated, young female rural migrant from populous, relatively remote provinces such as Sichuan and Hunan. Over the past decade, there has been a recognition that the majority of women who enter prostitution do so of their own accord.[18][19] The potential benefits of prostitution as an alternative form of employment include greater disposable income, access to upwardly mobile social circles and lifestyle options. The state-controlled media have focused attention on urban residents engaging in prostitution, especially university-educated women.[20] There also seems to be a growing acceptance of prostitution. In a 1997 study, 46.8% of undergraduates in Beijing admitted to having considered receiving prostitution services.[21] On the demand side, prostitution has been associated with the gender imbalances brought about by the one-child policy.[22]

Prostitution is often directly linked to low-level government corruption. Many local officials believe that encouraging prostitution in recreational business operations will bring economic benefits by developing the tourism and hospitality industries and generating a significant source of tax revenue.[23] On occasion, police have been implicated in the running of high grade hotels where prostitution activities occur, or accepting bribes and demanding sexual favours to ignore the existence of prostitution activities.[24] Government corruption is also involved in a more indirect form — the widespread abuse of public funds to finance consumption of sex services. Pan Suiming contends that China has a specific type of prostitution that entails a bargain between those who use their power and authority in government to obtain sex and those who use sex to obtain privileges.[25]

Apart from incidences of violence directly associated with prostitution, an increasing number of women who sell sex have been physically assaulted, and even murdered, in the course of attempts to steal their money and property.[26] There have also been a growing number of criminal acts, especially incidences of theft and fraud directed at men who buy sex, as well as bribery of public servants.[27] Offenders often capitalise on the unwillingness of participants in the prostitution transaction to report such activities. Organised crime rings are increasingly trafficking women into and out of China for the sex trade, sometimes forcibly and after multiple acts of rape.[28][29][30] Mainland China also has a growing number of "heroin hookers", whose drug addictions are often connected to international and domestic crime rackets.[31]

Sexually transmitted diseases also made a resurgence around the same time as prostitution, and have been directly linked to prostitution. Some regions have introduced a policy of 100% condom use, inspired by a similar measure in Thailand. Other interventions have been introduced recently at some sites, including STI services, peer education and voluntary counselling and testing for HIV.[32][33]

Chinese women are sometimes required to submit a nude photo along with personally identifiable contact information as collateral when receiving a loan. If they fall behind in their payments, the photos together with the contact information are sold online to potential customers of prostitution or human traffickers.[34]

In 2003 a report by Chen Jieren on university prostitution in China has sparked a country-wide debate about the issue, which has also been described as a "well-kept secret".[35]

Uganda's Director of Interpol Asan Kasingye estimates that thousands of women from Kenya, Rwanda or Uganda were trafficked in 2011 to work as prostitutes in China, Indonesia and Malaysia.[36]

During the 19th century[37] and in contemporary times, Portuguese prostitutes have operated in Macau.[38] Some Chinese triad members from Macau married Portuguese prostitutes before China took it back from Portugal, providing them with access to Portuguese citizenship.[39] By 1930, there were about 8000 White Russian prostitutes in Shanghai.[40] Today, Eastern Europeans and Russians make up most of the white prostitutes in China.[41] Bars in major Chinese cities offer blonde, blue-eyed Russian "hostesses".[42] Many European prostitutes in China market themselves as escorts to attract the attention of visiting businessmen and richer Chinese clients. They may work independently or through an escort agency and advertise their services through the internet. In Shanghai, many Russian women work as prostitutes.[43]

During the mid-2010s it was reported that Japanese pornographic actresses were working in Macau as prostitutes for rich clients.[44][45][46]

The North Korean government system of harsh punishment through forced labor camps or the death penalty can fuel trafficking in neighboring China.[47] Many of the estimated 10,000[48] North Korean women and girls who have migrated illegally to China to flee abuse and human rights violations are particularly vulnerable to trafficking.[47][49][50][51] According to a source from 2005, "60 to 70 percent of North Korean defectors in the People's Republic of China are women, 70 to 80 percent of whom are victims of human trafficking."[52]

Traffickers reportedly lure, drug, detain, or kidnap some North Korean women upon their arrival. The women are then moved to cities farther away to subjected to forced prostitution in brothels or through internet sex sites, or compelled service as hostesses in nightclubs or karaoke bars. Others offer jobs but subsequently force the women into prostitution.[47]

North Korean victims of sex trafficking in China have been subjected to penetrative vaginal and anal rape, groping, and forced masturbation in illegal 'online rape dens' used for digital and live pornographic video sharing in the twenty-first century.[53][54]

When Chinese authorities arrest these North Korean trafficking victims, they repatriate them. North Korean authorities keep such repatriates in penal labour colonies, execute any Chinese-fathered babies of theirs "to protect North Korean pure blood" and force abortions on all pregnant repatriates not executed.[52][51]

A ring of South Korean prostitutes, composed of 21 Korean women ranging in age from 24 to 37, serving Chinese men was busted in Macau in 2015.[55][56][57][58]

Some Korean women wear kiminos while working as prostitutes in Macau.[59]

Some Mongolian women work as prostitutes in bars in Beijing.[60][61]

There are reports that Pakistani women have been trafficked to China and forced into prostitution. Hundreds of Pakistani women have allegedly been "sold" by poor families to marry Chinese men. It is said that the majority have subsequently been handed over by their husbands to paying Chinese men to be raped in China.[62] Others have been made to work in bars and clubs which is considered unacceptable in Pakistan's conservative Islamic society.[63]

The gender gap in China, resulting from the country's one-child policy, has led to a shortage of women of marriageable age. With improved relations between China and Pakistan, more Pakistani women have begun marrying Chinese men, mainly as a result of poverty in Pakistan.[64]

The majority of the women involved are from Christian families as these make up the poorest communities in Pakistan. The process is facilitated by marriage brokers who are able to charge far higher fees than the amount of money given to families of the women.[65]

China's foreign ministry has dismissed the list of sold girls. Pakistani officials have been accused of trying to suppress information to avoid jeopardizing China-Pakistan relations. Omar Warriach, Amnesty International's South Asia director has criticised administrations of both countries for allowing large scale mistreatment of Pakistani women without expressing any concern. He has urged Pakistan not to tolerate human right violations of its own citizens just to protect its relationship with China.[65]

China is a recipient of Vietnamese prostitutes.[66][67][68][69]

Many Vietnamese women travel from Lao Cai in Vietnam to Hekou County in China to work in brothels. They provide sex mainly to Chinese men.[70]

Vietnamese women working as prostitutes in China have been trafficked from Vietnam through various means at the Guangxi border.[71] Ha Giang province is a conduit for women being trafficked to become prostitutes in China.[72] Chinese police sent 11 Vietnamese prostitutes working in Guangxi back to Vietnam in 2012.[73]

On the Chinese border with Vietnam, in the Chinese town of Po-chai, a "Vietnamese girl market" made out of Vietnamese prostitutes offers sex to Chinese men exclusively and refuses service to Vietnamese men.[74]

Elizabeth Wheeler Andrew (1845–1917) and Katharine Caroline Bushnell (5 February 1856 January 26, 1946), who wrote extensively on the position of women in the British Empire, wrote about the Tanka inhabitants of Hong Kong and their position in the prostitution industry, catering towards foreign sailors. The Tanka did not marry with the Chinese, being descendants of the natives, they were restricted to the waterways. They supplied their women as prostitutes to British sailors and assisted the British in their military actions around Hong Kong.[77] The Tanka in Hong Kong were considered "outcasts" categorized low class.[78]

Ordinary Chinese prostitutes were afraid of serving Westerners since they looked strange to them, while the Tanka prostitutes freely mingled with western men.[79] The Tanka assisted the Europeans with supplies and providing them with prostitutes.[80] Low class European men in Hong Kong easily formed relations with the Tanka prostitutes.[81] The profession of prostitution among the Tanka women led to them being hated by the Chinese both because they had sex with westerners and them being racially Tanka.[82]

The Tanka prostitutes were considered to be "low class", greedy for money, arrogant, and treating clients with a bad attitude, they were known for punching their clients or mocking them by calling them names.[83] Though the Tanka prostitutes were considered low class, their brothels were still remarkably well kept and tidy.[84] A famous fictional story which was written in the 1800s depicted western items decorating the rooms of Tanka prostitutes.[85]

The stereotype among most Chinese in Canton that all Tanka women were prostitutes was common, leading the government during the Republican era to accidentally inflate the number of prostitutes when counting, due to all Tanka women being included.[86][87] The Tanka women were viewed as such that their prostitution activities were considered part of the normal bustle of a commercial trading city.[88] Sometimes the lowly regarded Tanka prostitutes managed to elevate themselves into higher forms of prostitution.[89][90]

Tanka women were ostracized from the Cantonese community, and were nicknamed "salt water girls " (ham shui mui in Cantonese) for their services as prostitutes to foreigners in Hong Kong.[80][91]

Tanka women who worked as prostitutes for foreigners also commonly kept a "nursery" Tanka girls specifically for exporting them for prostitution work to overseas Chinese communities such as in Australia or America, or to serve as a Chinese or foreigner's concubine.[92]

A report called "Correspondence respecting the alleged existence of Chinese slavery in Hong Kong: presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty" was presented to the English Parliament in 1882 concerning the existence of slavery in Hong Kong, of which many were Tanka girls serving as prostitutes or mistresses to westerners.[93]

Temporary marriage, in the form of the Sunni Muslim misyar marriage ("traveller's marriage") contract, is a practice that has sometimes been used as a cover for a form of prostitution.[103] It was widespread in Xinjiang under Chinese rule prior to the Dungan Revolt of 1862–77, and some westerners considered its use there to be a form of licensed prostitution. It allowed a man to marry a woman for a week or even a couple of days, with "the mulla who performs the ceremony arranging for the divorce at the same time".[104] In some cases a temporary marriage was undertaken without the traditional marriage contract and could be easily terminated by the man involved. Such a marriage was forbidden by the Koran, and the Turki (Uyghur) Muslims in Xinjiang called it a "marriage of convenience".[105]

After the restoration of Chinese rule in the late 19th century it was common for Chinese soldiers and civilians in the Yarkand area of Xinjiang, including high officials, to take temporary wives, often without a marriage ceremony. Most of the wives came from Khotan. When the Chinese returned to China proper, their wives were abandoned or sold to friends.[106][107] The Russian exile Paul Nazaroff reported the existence of a temporary marriage bazaar in Yangi Hissar in the 1920s.[108][109]

The frequent marriages of Chinese men to Muslim Turki women in Xinjiang from 1880 to 1949 occurred despite the fact that Islamic law forbids Muslim women from marrying non-Muslims, and that the Turki community considered such women to be prostitutes. Some foreign commentators suggested that the women involved were motivated by poverty, as such marriages prevented the women from being subject to the tax on prostitution.[110]

Until the 1980s, the subject of prostitution was not viewed as a major concern for the National People's Congress. The PRC's first criminal code, the Criminal Law and the Criminal Procedure Law of 1979 made no explicit reference to the activities of prostitutes and prostitute clients.[116] Legal control of prostitution was effected on the basis of provincial rulings and localised policing initiatives until the introduction of the "Security administration punishment regulations" in 1987. The Regulations makes it an offence to "sell sex" (卖淫) and to "have illicit relations with a prostitute" (嫖宿暗娼).[117]

Prostitution only became a distinct object of statutory classification in the early 1990s. Responding to requests from the Ministry of Public Security and the All-China Women's Federation, the National People's Congress passed legislation that significantly expanded the range and scope of prostitution controls: the 1991 Decision on Strictly Forbidding the Selling and Buying of Sex and the 1991 Decision on the Severe Punishment of Criminals Who Abduct and Traffic in or Kidnap Women and Children.[118] Adding symbolic weight to these enhanced law enforcement controls was the 1992 Law on Protecting the Rights and Interests of Women, which defines prostitution as a social practice that abrogates the inherent rights of women to personhood.[119]

The PRC's revised Criminal Law of 1997 retains its abolitionist focus in that it is primarily concerned with criminalising third-party involvement in prostitution. For the first time the death penalty may be used, but only in exceptional cases of organising prostitution activities, involving additional circumstances such as repeated offences, rape, causing serious bodily injury, etc.[120][121] The activities of first-party participants continue to be regulated in practice according to administrative law, with the exceptions of anyone who sells or buys prostitutional sex in the full knowledge that they are infected with an STD; and anyone who has prostitutional sex with a child under 14 years of age.[122] Since 2003, male homosexual prostitution has also been prosecuted under the law.[123]

The 1997 criminal code codified provisions in the 1991 Decision, establishing a system of controls over social place, specifically places of leisure and entertainment.[124] The ultimate goal is to stop managers and workers within the predominantly male-run and male-patronised hospitality and service industry from profiting from and/or encouraging the prostitution of others. Government intervention in commercial recreation has found concrete expression in the form of the 1999 "Regulations concerning the management of public places of entertainment". The provisions proscribe a range of commercial practices that characterise the activities of female "hostesses".[125] These laws have been further reinforced via the introduction of localised licensing measures that bear directly on the interior spatial organisation of recreational venues.

As a result of strong calls to curb official corruption, during the mid to late 1990s, a whole host of regulations were also introduced to ban government employees both from running recreational venues and from protecting illegal business operations. The 1997 Communist Party Discipline Regulations, for example, contain specific provisions to the effect that party members will be stripped of their posts for using their position and/or public funds to keep a "second wife", a "hired wife", and to buy sexual services.[126] These measures are being policed via the practice established in 1998 of auditing government officials, and thereby combining the forces of the CPC's disciplinary committees with those of the State Auditing Administration. Following the introduction of these measures, the Chinese media has publicised numerous cases of government officials being convicted and disciplined for abusing their positions for prostitution.[127]