'Chinese celebrities must behave', state media say after director held for sex with prostitute

Chinese state media warned people in the entertainment industry to discipline themselves after yet another case of celebrity misconduct – this time of a famous filmmaker getting arrested for soliciting prostitutes.

Police said award-winning director Wang Quanan – who is married to actress Zhang Yuqi – was arrested in Beijing and had confessed to paying a woman 800 yuan (HK$1,000) for sex last week. As of Tuesday, Wang has not been released from a police bureau in Beijing.

Prostitution and soliciting are illegal on the mainland, carrying penalties of at least 15 days in police detention and a fine of 5,000 yuan, according to the Public Security Administration Punishments Law.

Previously, actor Huang Haibo was detained on the same charge. In a case that sparked more media frenzy, actor Jaycee Chan, the son of global kung fu star Jackie Chan, was detained for drug use along with Taiwanese actor Kai Ko after being caught at a party where they admitted to smoking marijuana.

“Disoriented moral standards, weakened legal awareness, blended with fame and gains, have plagued today’s entertainment sphere,” the official state news agency Xinhua said in a stern commentary.

“It is of great urgency to have the necessary professional ethical restraints and strict legal deterrence,” it said on Tuesday.

The Global Times, a newspaper closely affiliated with Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily, warned that the celebrities “would pay [a] grievous and long-term price for soliciting prostitutes” as “Chinese society has more stringent moral standards for celebrities”.