Opinion | World's oldest profession still one of the most honest in China

After coming to power in 1949, the Communist Party quickly ordered a nationwide crackdown on prostitution, which the public welcomed, literally, with song and praise.

Six decades later, the world's oldest profession is alive and well on the mainland, and periodic campaigns to stamp it out are more likely to stir public sympathy for sex workers.

News of this week's vice blitz in the Pearl River Delta industrial hub of Dongguan was met with online comments like "Dongguan, hang in there" and "the public has your back".

The Guangdong provincial propaganda department, on the day after the CCTV exposé that sparked the police raids, said on its Sina Weibo account that people should judge Dongguan by its other merits, such as its tolerance of outsiders and contribution to the world's electronics industry. The people of the city need not worry about "being looked down upon", it said, without mentioning the police raids.

The simple truth is that no amount of police effort can eradicate certain human needs. The intensity of the public reaction to the crackdown reflected not just the lack of credibility of such government programmes, but also how social values have changed in modern times.

The report aired by CCTV on Sunday claimed the city's thriving underground sex trade was being protected by po lice.