Why are Chinese hotels unsafe?
- By Jason Lee
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E-mail China.org.cn, April 12, 2016
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Executives of Yitel, a hotel run by Home Inns & Hotels Management Inc, bow at a press conference in Beijing on April 6 when they apologize for problems at a hotel during an alleged attack. [Photo/Xinhua] |
On the night of November 21, 1949, Beijing shut down all of its 244 brothels and took in more than 1,200 prostitutes for reeducation and medical treatment. The People's Daily declared in its editorial the following morning: "From now on, in the people's capital city, whorehouses have disappeared and prostitutes have been liberated."
On April 7 this year, reporters from the Beijing News investigated illicit prostitution in the capital's budget hotels and found that on-call prostitutes are widely available at the hotels. The newspaper commented the next day: "Cheap hotels have become a den for prostitution."
Although prostitution became illegal in China after the Communist Party took power in 1949, the industry continues to prosper. Gail Hershatter, a historian at the University of California, wrote a book entitled "Dangerous Pleasures" on the history of prostitution in Shanghai from the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) to the 1990s. She remarked that prostitution is a core symbol of China's politics, economy, history, and spiritual culture.
China's internal migrant population numbers in hundreds of millions. The female-to-male sex ratio is about 100 to 120, markedly higher than the world average. And the income gap between genders in China is so wide that the government won't even disclose the statistics. All of these factors contribute to a societal need for prostitution.
Some prostitutes were abandoned children in villages, who went through childhood without parents. Some young women have said in interviews that they will go home after making enough money. To some extent, the industry is a metaphor of many of the social and economic problems in China that cannot be solved by public security organs single handedly.
Even in some countries where prostitution is lawful, the supervision and administration of the industry have always been controversial. France passed a bill on April 4 which will punish pimps but not prostitutes. Sex workers fiercely oppose the bill, arguing that the law will do more harm than good.
On April 3, a woman was assaulted by a man working for a prostitution ring outside of her room in a budget hotel in Beijing. Were it not for another woman's help, she would have been dragged away by the man. The hotel did not apologize and the police did not take concrete actions until the woman posted the video online, pressing the authorities to investigate.
The case has shaken people's confidence in the safety of their living environments. The reaction from the hotel and police has made people feel helpless.
The man was captured on April 8. It is believed that he mistook the woman as a prostitute moving in on his turf.
It is likely that the public security department will launch a new anti-prostitution campaign in the city. The only effects will be causing prices to soar. Such a movement's symbolic meaning is bigger than its actual effects.
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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