Dongguan to punish officials complicit in sex trade

Leading officials and police heads will be fired immediately and may face further punishments if any new sex trade activities are discovered in Dongguan, Guangdong province, local disciplinary authorities stated Wednesday.

Dongguan has been cracking down on its infamous prostitution industry after a China Central Television program revealed that a dozen hotels in Dongguan were offering sex services on Sunday. Many more hotels are believed to have been running this illegal business for years in Dongguan, known as the Capital of Sex.

After vowing to carry out a three-month crackdown on the sex trade in the city's entertainment venues, the disciplinary body of the local Party commission released a statement on Wednesday, saying Party heads and the police bureau heads of the towns or streets where new cases of prostitution are reported and confirmed will be removed from their posts and punished according to relevant regulations and laws.

Any Party member or official who is involved in running sex business or has acted as a protective umbrella for sex venues will face the same fate, according to the statement.

The notice urged different departments to cooperate in the crackdown.

The notice vowed that the investigation will not stop until the major suspects in the criminal chains are caught.

According to Hong Kong media, among the more than 100 people arrested in Dongguan's sex trade crackdown in recent days, a dozen were Hong Kong people, including retired police officers and at least one in-service officer.

Andy Tsang Wai-hung, commissioner of the Hong Kong police, Wednesday told media that no Hong Kong police personnel were arrested during the Dongguan crackdown, according to the People's Daily Online.