Dongguan is dim, but sex is not dead
Staff Reporter
2015-02-21
Two jobless sex workers lounge inside of their small rented room after the heavy official assault on the sex industry in Dongguan, Feb. 2014. (File photo/ CFP)
The sex industry that once thrived in Dongguan, Guangdong province has now scurried underground after the hammering of official raids and crackdowns seeking to eradicate the industry last year, reports our Chinese language sister newspaper Want Daily.
Last February, the local government of Dongguan announced cash rewards for anyone reporting activities or any deals involving the sex trade. Informants who provide substantial evidence that results in arrests could receive 500 to 5,000 yuan (US$80-800) a report.
The police received a significant number of reports and the raids began. Shops and parlors closed down; people were arrested by the hundreds. The neon lights of China's "sex city" went dim, but, according to local media outlets, not out.
Even though places which once provided sex services were forced to close and all the businesses attached to them damaged, many sex workers remain, said the report. Now some take calls from clients and work at home. They can earn up to US$190 a session.
Others comb the streets, earning US$16 for their "brief" services. This is after a raise, now that the work is riskier than before, said the report.
It was also found that some female residents who used to work at the region's bars or catering businesses that failed to survive have become sex workers "for the better pay."
