Security officials in China have intensified their crackdown on ‘vice’, including prostitution, but the police are simultaneously being sensitised to treat commercial sex workers humanely — and to refer to them as ‘fallen women’, not ‘prostitutes’.
Security officials in China have intensified their crackdown on ‘vice’, including prostitution, but the police are simultaneously being sensitised to treat commercial sex workers humanely — and to refer to them as ‘fallen women’, not ‘prostitutes’.
A weekend meeting of security officials announced that the ongoing crackdown on “entertainment establishments” — including nightclubs, massage parlours and karaoke joints that service a vibrant commercial sex trade — would continue.
Police officials would even go “undercover” at least once a week to ensure that the establishments were abiding by anti-vice regulations.
Simultaneously, however, the police are being directed to treat suspected sex workers in a humane fashion — and not parade them in handcuffs in public, as happened recently in Guangzhou, during a crackdown ahead of the Asian Games in that city.
Images of suspected sex workers, barefooted and handcuffed, being paraded on the streets whipped up a backlash on the Internet. Satirists even mocked the Communist Party of China by comparing it unfavourably to sex workers on a number of counts.
Liu Shaowu, head of the public security ministry’s order control bureau, told police officials to initiate an ‘education’ campaign among them to “protect the privacy and rights” of sex workers.
At the suggestion of several ministries and women’s groups, he cautioned against “ritual humiliation” of sex workers — such as parading them in handcuffs in public or revealing their identities.
Liu even sensitised police officials to use language that was less crude, offensive and judgmental.
“Those whom we referred to earlier as maai yin nu (prostitutes) should hence forth be called shi zu fu nu (‘fallen women’, or women who have ‘lapsed’ — that is, made a mistake). “Even this special group of people ought to be treated with respect,” Liu added.
The effort should be to provide sex workers with “moral education” and skills training to secure legitimate employment, rather than criminalising them, according to a proposal by several ministries and women’s groups.
Over the past few months, vice squads have conducted raids in 30 cities across China, including Beijing — where a high-profile nightclub, Passion Club, frequented by the rich and famous, was ordered to be shut down.
Liu noted that over 650 entertainment establishments across China had been investigated in June and July. Nearly 400 of them were penalised for organising prostitution and “erotic performances”.
Even foreign nationalities were working as sex workers in Beijing, according to Li Zhongyi, deputy commander of the public order department in Beijing.
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