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At least 1 million prostitutes in China... and still counting
Report from The New Paper (Singapore) dated Tuesday 7 August 2007 :-
At least 1 million prostitutes in China... and still counting
NO longer limited to well-known bars or a growing number of karaoke parlours, prostitutes are everywhere in China today.
They have branched out onto college campuses, moved into private residential compounds and approached customers on handphone networks.
Estimates of the number of prostitutes in China vary widely from one million who earn their primary income from sex, to eight or 10 times that, including people who accept money, gifts or rent in exchange for sex.
The Communist Party is embarrassed by the thriving trade, which goes against everything it stands for. Occasionally there are highly publicised crackdowns, and prostitutes are rounded up.
But widespread prostitution does not exist without tacit police approval; the trade brings in money that helps support poor rural families and lines the pockets of everyone who helps protect the business - often including local authorities.
Most are from the countryside: rural women placing all their hopes for the future in China's increasingly competitive urban centres.
Some entering the trade are older than in the past, and some are much younger.
A 22-year-old freelance prostitute who takes calls from salon managers told The Washington Post that when she came to Beijing last June, the market price for women like her was US$20 ($35).
But now, because of increased competition from younger workers newly arrived from the countryside, her price has dropped to US$13.
Said Professor Jing Jun, who specialises in sociology and Aids policy at Tsinghua University: 'There was no open prostitution 25years ago.
'Fifteen years ago, you didn't find sex workers in remote areas and cities. But now it's prevalent in every city, every county.'
--- KatoeyNewsNetwork
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