Chinese Prostitution Sweep

(Beijing, China) Prostitutes looking for a big payday during the Olympics will apparently have a difficult time. A major police offensive has been launched against the sex industry to prevent the image of the Beijing Olympic Games from being tarnished.


  
On the street, bar and prostitution center

The crackdown has closed up many of the most notorious bars and other prostitution centres.

Kelly, who hails from nearby Hebei province and declined to give her Chinese name, said many of her fellow sex workers had recently been thrown in jail before being sent back to their home provinces.

"We have to be careful. If I get thrown out of Beijing, I won't be able to get back in because police are putting up roadblocks into Beijing," said Kelly, who formerly prowled hotel lobbies but was chased out by management.

Business owners catering to the late-night crowd are on constant alert for police on foot and in cars, checking to see if the daily-changing rules are being followed. There's to be no excess partying, no drugs, no displays of affection and no service to foreigners with prostitutes.

"How am I supposed to know if someone is a prostitute?" lamented Phoebe Storm Gluyas, an Australian who manages the Saddle, a Mexican bar and restaurant that just opened at a new mall on the main bar strip. "Am I supposed to ask?"

Dozens of police patrol the area on foot and in cars, frequently raiding bars to check patrons' visas. Dozens more in plain clothes mingle with guests in the clubs, owners say. Their numbers are augmented by private security guards hired by local businesses.

The Chinese are essentially forced to be suspicious of foreigners and it's all part of the effort to sweep the blue side of China under the carpet. And, interestingly, the blue side is rather formidable with an estimated 10 million prostitutes in China.