Girls as young as thirteen were convinced to travel to a remote location, where threats and violence were used to force them into performing sexual services. It is reported that certain of the customers refused to wear condoms during sex.
According to the news story, originally published in the “China Youth Daily”, girls as young as thirteen were lured into a prostitution ring run by three individuals - a Ms. Yuan Li, the 37 year old, the unemployed former-owner of a travel agency; a 14 year old school girl with the surname Liu, and her fifteen year old boyfriend with the surname Yuan. Yuan Li, who had obtained the contact details of numerous government officials during her time as the owner of a travel agency, provided both the customers and venues for the prostitution ring, while Liu and Yuan procured school girls to work as prostitutes. Yuan Li would receive a 30% cut, while the remaining proceeds would be kept by the two teenagers.
The case follows closely on another case which occurred two years ago in Guizhou Province, in which Zhao Qing-mei, school teacher in Weining County, was sentenced to death for coercing school students to take part in prostitution.
From October 2007 to July 2008, the prostitution ring forced over 10 girls from three high schools and one primary school into prostitution. The group would convince the girls into travelling with them to a remote location, where they would be forced into performing sexual services for Yuan Li’s customers by means of intimidation and threats of violence. Girls who had already been forced to work as prostitutes were also used to procure other underaged girls for the prostitution ring, as the leaders of the prostitution ring said that they would be then be employed as their “replacements.”
Patrons of the prostitution ring included Feng Zhi-yang, a high-school teacher; Chen Cun, a cadre with the Xishui County Judicial Department, and Mu Ming-zhong, a real-estate developer and the representative for the Xishui County People’s Congress. It is reported that certain of the customers refused to wear condoms during sex.
Although the venue for the provision of prostitution services was located in the same building as the local judicial department, the judicial department has denied any knowledge or involvement in the case. According to one figure from the department, officials who noticed the regular visits of school girls to the building assumed that they were participating in after-class tutorials.
The news story also takes issue with the decision of the county-level government to try the case at the county-level, and the consequent leniency of the prisons sentences to be issued to some of the offenders. Although the Political and Legal Committee Secretary for the Xishui County CPC, Yuan Yun-qin, stated in an interview that the case is “worse than murder”, and that the principle offenders in the case would be tried next week, because the case is being tried at the county-level, the highest penalty that can be imposed is a 20 year prison sentence. According to the local head of the public security bureau, Tao Dong, in addition to the 8 men who are being tried for patronizing the prostitution ring, 9 other men have been punished with fines of between 2000 - 5000 RMB,and periods of detention of between 5 to 10 days.
To see the original article, please click here. Link to original news story in Chinese.