In 1999, the police officials in China’s eastern
province of Jiangsu have invented a totally new and profitable approach to
improve their financial standing. The scheme was simple and efficient, and it
did not require significant investments. The plan has been executed by opening a
secret brothel, than busting it, arrested the customers, and “fining” them.
With seed money of just 6,000 Yuan ($725), Lishui
County police substation deputy chief Gao Mingliang set up operations in a brothel
disguised as a restaurant. Specially hired professional prostitutes would
entice their customers into the back rooms. After a while, the police would
raid the rooms, arrest the customers, haul them down to the police substation
and fine them.
The interesting detail is that depending on how much
money the police station pulled in, policemen would even issue a performance
bonus to the girls.
Between May and August 1999, the bureau racked up
more than 80,000 Yuan through the scheme from multiple brothel customers. The
Lishui County police plan unraveled when a neighboring police substation
arrested the man listed as owning the restaurant and sentenced him to a year in
a labor camp for running a brothel. Upset after a year of hard labor, the man
sent a petition to high level officials who uncovered Gao's scam. As Gao later
confessed, in September a Nanjing District Court sentenced him to one year in
prison for abusing his authority.
Legal
Facts
Prostitution
is illegal in China under the Security Administrative Punishments Law of 2006, but
is relegated to the status of a misdemeanor unless the participants knowingly
have a “serious venereal disease,” or physical violence, injury, or a minor
child under the age of 14 is involved. It is technically punishable with a
warning, a fine up to 5,000 Yuan, a signature on a "statement of
repentance," "re-education through labor," or 15 days in prison.
(Article 30 of the Regulations of the PRC on Administrative Penalties for
Public Security, 1986).
Due
to the illegal status of the prostitution in China, and multiple efforts to prosecute
the sex workers, China fails to comply with requirements of the UN Convention
of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which
calls for widespread legalization of prostitution.
Sources
and Additional Information:
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