Date: Feb 25th 2014 11:37a.m.

Contributed by:
ktschroedes

In an update of our previous story “Busting Prostitution Rings in China”, police officers involved in the recent Dongguan sex trade crackdown are alleged to having been tipped off before the raid.  Officers are claimed to be afraid of an investigation into the alleged corruption.  

 A source quoted from South China Morning Post  claims that some of the officers were tipped off that a raid against the sex trade industry was imminent and warned officers with vested interests to shut down their businesses to avoid the raids “ahead of the Lunar New Year”. 

 To date, Dongguan has mobilized 6,500 police to raid nearly 2,000 entertainment businesses, including KTVs, massage parlors, and saunas.  The crackdown has also affected Dongguan taxi drivers as some of them claim to have contracts with local pimps and prostitutes to get kickbacks by taking clients to the hotels and nightclubs.

 Zhu Jianguo, a political scholar based in Shenzhen, says these raids have Beijing’s support but also urged the government to think again about conducting such a crackdown.  Zhu is quoted as saying, “This will hurt the local economy and the tax revenue of the local government.  A crackdown is only going to send the business elsewhere.”