Chinese police arrest whores

Press, 30 December 1985, Page 14

Chinese police arrest whores

NZPA-AFP Hong Kong The police in the southern Chinese city of Canton rounded up more than 500 women and about 300 of their clients during a recent anti-prostitution campaign, a newspaper reports. Some Government officials were among men arrested for consorting with prostitutes, the Leftist “Wen Wei Po” newspaper said. It said ’‘pimps and middle-men” were arrested, but gave no figures. The campaign was mounted as officials became alarmed at the rise in venereal disease in Canton. More than 600 cases of venereal disease have been recorded this year, it said, but gave no comparative figures for other years.

Some of the women held were members of a fairskinned ethnic minority in the north-west Xinjiang region, it said. In Canton they catered especially to Chinese men visiting from the nearby British colony of Hong Kong and Portuguese-run Macao. The newspaper said strong measures had been introduced to stamp out prostitution — men found consorting with prostitutes were being detained and heavily fined. In the case of men from Hong Kong and Macao, their families in the colony were asked to fetch them from Canton. A re-education camp has been established for prostitutes, the newspaper said.