Weibo star admits sex parties

Photo: screenshot from Weibo.com

The social media celebrity who has been detained in Beijing for hiring a prostitute is also allegedly involved in sex parties, the capital's public security bureau said Wednesday.

Xue Charles Bi-chuen, 60, a Sina Weibo celebrity widely known as Xue Manzi, was detained by police along with another 26 suspects at the Anhuili residential community in northern Beijing. The crackdown followed repeated tip-offs from residents since late August.

The famous Chinese-American angel investor was captured last Friday when he was soliciting a prostitute, a 22-year-old woman surnamed Zhang from Huaiyang, Henan Province.

Local police said on Wednesday that when they found Xue, he first said he was an American citizen and claimed he would call his lawyer to handle this.

Zhang, who is alleged of prostitution, came to Beijing in May this year. The woman said she started to provide Xue sexual services since the beginning of August and the man paid her 1,000 yuan ($163.4) every time.

Xue gave her a 500 yuan raise from her usual price on the day they were caught at Zhang's temporary residence.

The police also said that since May, Xue has procured at least 10 sex workers.

Sex workers could only identify Xue by seeing his face as he had never revealed his name or any other personal information.

According to sex workers involved in the case, Xue was quite famous among them as he bears distinct physical characteristics and frequently visited prostitutes.

Xue called one pimp, surnamed Ma, and asked her to introduce a girl to him the day before he was detained, but Ma refused, claiming Xue habitually delayed paying.

Xue was disgruntled and went to where Ma lived. Ma was ordered to find four girls then Xue had sex with three of them.

He also admitted that he has a problem with his addiction to soliciting prostitutes.

After the local police informed the US embassy in Beijing of Xue's detention, in accordance with relevant regulations, on Saturday, the embassy sent its consular officers to visit him on Monday afternoon.

"We are aware that a US citizen has been detained in Beijing, and the embassy will provide all appropriate consular assistance," Justin Higgins, acting spokesman of the US embassy, told the Global Times late Wednesday in an interview.

But he refused to make further comment due to "considerations of privacy."

The case is still under investigation, local police said.

Xue Manzi, who currently has over 12 million Weibo followers, has advocated for critical illness insurance in China, initiated a campaign to track down trafficked children and called for transparent details on pollution in the country.

Xinhua contributed to this story

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