Police must 'learn from Dongguan'

The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) urged all police staff to learn lessons from Dongguan and called for a nationwide crackdown on crimes involving prostitution, gambling and drugs, according to a statement on its website Sunday.

Eight more provinces have carried out campaigns against prostitution, gambling and drugs in the wake of Guangdong province's clampdown on the sex trade in Dongguan, the Wuhan-based Changjiang Daily reported Sunday.

More than 100 people involved in the illegal sex trade were caught in Rugao, Jiangsu province on Thursday night after local police raided several karaoke parlors.

Meanwhile, police in Leiyang, Hunan province, formed a special action group of more than 300 police officers to raid entertainment venues involved in prostitution and gambling on Wednesday night.

The operation apprehended 79 suspects, shut down 22 venues, and captured 25 electronic gambling machines.

An overnight raid on Wednesday in Harbin, Heilongjiang province dispatched over 4,800 policemen to sweep more than 2,700 venues.

Other provinces, including Zhejiang and Shandong, also conducted inspections focusing on hotels, bath centers, massage parlors and other entertainment venues.

The ministry vowed to crack down on organizers, operators and the "protective umbrella" of the sex trade in Dongguan, and asked the province to find those responsible, including top officials from the police department and other police staff, according to the statement.

The party secretaries of the townships of Huangjiang, Humen, Houjie and Fenggang in Dongguan made a public apology on Sunday, following the sacking of Yan Xiaokang, vice mayor of Dongguan and head of the city's public security bureau, on Friday.

The persistent campaign in Dongguan has left the city's usually busy clubs deserted, and forced many sex workers to leave for Zhejiang and Fujian provinces to "continue to make money," a night club employee told the Hong Kong-based Wenweipo paper on Friday.

The recent crackdown on prostitution has drawn sympathetic voices in support of sex workers, with some saying that prostitution is based on "market demand." Some have made calls for legalization of the industry.

"There's neither necessity nor possibility to legalize the sex industry," a critique carried by Sunday's People's Daily said, stating that it's the responsibility of the media and the governments to regulate and strike down the illegal sex trade.

This is the fourth consecutive critique published in three days by the People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China, discussing the complicated social responses toward the campaign.

Prostitution should be firmly smashed at the beginning before it runs rampant, which would be a typical dereliction of duty, the article said, adding that it is sophistry to sympathize with prostitution with the excuse of "market demand."