Dongguan hotel tycoon faces life for his role in local sex trade
Staff Reporter
2015-05-31
TV coverage of Liang Yaohui's trial, May 27. (Photo/CNS)
A hotel tycoon in Dongguan in southern China's Guangdong province may be sentenced to life in prison if he is convicted on charges of operating a prostitution ring, according to Chinese media reports.
The trial of Liang Yaohui, owner of the Crown Prince Hotel in Dongguan, and 46 other defendants began May 27 in the case of a sex trade ring that allegedly was being operated at the hotel, the state news agency Xinhua said.
Liang, who is accused of managing organized prostitution operations and other crimes, pleaded not guilty in court, while 43 other defendants pleaded guilty, Xinhua said.
The operations were based in the hotel's sauna facility, which opened in 1998, and were exposed in February 2014 by state broadcaster China Central Television. The ring was later busted in a police raid.
According to prosecutors, over 100 people, including minors, working in the sauna were involved in the prostitution ring, which brought in an estimated 48.7 million yuan (US$7.85 million) in illegal gains in 2013.
Prosecutors said the illegal sex trade began in the hotel sauna area in 2004 and that some 101,900 illegal transactions were conducted in 2013.
In a report in Hong Kong's Ta Kung Pao, a criminal lawyer said Liang most likely will be sentenced to life imprisonment if he is convicted of running the ring, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of death.
Chinese media said, however, that capital punishment has been imposed in sex trade cases only when there was proven evidence of kidnapping, death or maiming.
Dongguan had long had a reputation as "China's sex capital" for its flourishing underground sex trade. Officials had largely turned a blind eye to the industry or even profited from being complicit in its operations, as the trade was a major contributor to the local economy. The CCTV expose last year was a calculated move by the government but the ultimate political motivation for the crackdown remains obscure.
