Entertainment venues sign agreement with Dongguan police

Owners and managers of 2,684 sauna, entertainment and foot massage venues in Dongguan signed an agreement with local police on Tuesday, taking responsibility for running clean operations after a campaign against the sex trade in the city.

About 70 percent of such venues, or 1,134 businesses, have resumed operations following the crackdown.

The police pledged to continue zero tolerance of the sex trade and strict supervision of entertainment venues to prevent the trade from recovering, according to the public security bureau of Dongguan.

Police officers who fail in their supervision of offenses related to prostitution, gambling and drugs will also be held responsible.

The police required that investors, managers and workers of entertainment venues abide by laws and regulations on client registration and physical requirements of their businesses, in addition to other aspects.

They will suggest entertainment venues be deprived of their licenses if the venue is reported by the media to be involved in the sex trade or is ordered to close for overhauls twice in a year, the police restated.

If employees of a venue are found to be involved in prostitution, those profiting from the act, the transaction organizer and the operator of the venue will all be charged under criminal law.

A three-month crackdown against prostitution in Dongguan, a manufacturing hub in Guangdong province, was launched in February after China Central Television reported a rampant sex trade in the city.

Forty government officials in Dongguan have been punished, said Xu Jianhua, Party secretary of the city, in a meeting with web celebrities and journalists last week.

By July 21, 1,552 people involved in the sex trade had been charged under criminal law, said Li Dehe, an official with the public security bureau of Dongguan, as reported by Nanfang Daily.

The 11 venues mentioned in the CCTV report were mainly charged with organizing prostitution.

One of them, the Kangyi foot massage parlor, started organizing prostitution in 2008 and illegally earned more than 5 million yuan ($810,055) between June 2009 and February 2014. Fourteen suspects in the case, including five shareholders of the business, were transferred to the prosecutor.

As the entertainment venues resumed operations, prostitution had returned to some venues, Li said.

Some masseuses who worked at sauna houses had transferred to foot massage parlors and KTV bars, where they arranged paid sexual acts by means such as the Internet, text messages and WeChat.

In an inspection of hotels and entertainment venues on the night of July 18, the police caught three people suspected of arranging sex trades, four suspected of taking part in prostitution and 15 suspected of taking drugs.

It ordered KTV bars in three hotels to suspend their operation for overhaul for six months and held five other people responsible on criminal terms, including the owner of a hotel.

Dongguan closes sex-trade saunas	Prostitution crackdown expands nationwide