Prostitution crackdown in China province after TV investigation

Suspected prostitutes and their customers squat on the floor at a Dongguan hotel during a crackdown. Photograph: Imaginechina/REX

Authorities in the southern province of Guangdong have announced an impending three month-long anti-prostitution campaign, days after atelevision exposé in Dongguan prompted a dramatic raid.

The exposé and heavy-handed response have proved surprisingly controversial in China, where prostitution is technically illegal but practically ubiquitous. Internet users and human rights groups have criticised authorities for shaming and intimidating female sex workers rather than offering them help.

The UN estimates that four to six million women work in the country's sex industry nationwide, many of them in brothels thinly disguised as hair salons, massage parlours and karaoke bars.

In the exposé, which the state broadcaster CCTV aired on Sunday night, undercover reporters visited a range of upscale hotels and karaoke bars in the city of Dongguan, known as a prostitution hot spot.

In one segment, a reporter enters a room divided by one-way glass; on the other side, two scantily-clad women dance provocatively to a Lady Gaga song. A venue employee identifies them by their numbers, prices, and hometowns. "After you choose the one you like, she will come out and provide a special service," he explains. Later, the reporter calls the police to report prostitution, but none show up.

According to state media, the city responded to the broadcast by dispatching 6,525 police officers in a raid. They arrested 67 people and closed 12 entertainment venues. Pictures posted online showed lines of men and women kneeling on the floor in the middle of a hotel lobby, their heads down and their hands cuffed, surrounded by scores of uniformed police.

According to the state-run China Daily newspaper, Guangdong authorities will soon launch a three-month, province-wide crackdown on prostitution. "Local police officers who are found protecting the sex industry or who organise sexual services will be severely punished," said Li Chunsheng, the province's vice-governor, according to the newspaper. Eight officers have already been suspended.

A spokesman at the Dongguan public security bureau refused to confirm the report or comment on the current condition of the detained sex workers. "All of the information that we're willing to release is already available online," he said. "We don't have any more information at this time."

The crackdown has elicited a surprising degree of sympathy online – on Monday, "Dongguan, hang in there," and "Dongguan, don't cry" were hot topics on Sina Weibo, China's most popular microblog. Many users debated whether China should legalise prostitution. Some speculated that the report and crackdown were the product of an internal power struggle.

"I asked a Dongguan friend what he thought about all of this, and he said: there's just too much demand from clients – it's not like guns or drugs, which are scarce resources," wrote one user. "Unless you return to the 1950s, [prostitution] will be impossible to eradicate. The crackdown is nothing but a show." The post has been deleted by censors.

"This is the first time in memory that you have a large public debate [about prostitution] in which a non-moralistic or punitive point of view dominates," said Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher atHuman Rights Watch.

"These anti-prostitution, anti-pornography sweeps are causing more harm than good," he added. "They're ineffective in terms of reining in sex work in China (meaning reducing prostitution) but they nonetheless cause a lot of abuses".

China treats prostitution as an administrative violation rather than a criminal offence, and sex workers can face fines of up to £500 or 15 days' detention. Because the fines go directly into public security coffers, Bequelin said, police often force detained sex workers into confessing. Repeated crackdowns usually force sex workers to operate more clandestinely, making them more vulnerable to abuse