Dongguan hotel owner stripped of his NPC seat amid sex-trade crackdown
Hairdresser turned hotel boss investigated in vice crackdown is kicked out of legislature
A high-profile Dongguan hotel operator has been stripped of his seat in the national legislature for having allegedly committed "serious crimes", state media reported yesterday.
The Guangdong provincial legislature's decision followed a similar move by Dongguan's legislature earlier yesterday. The National People's Congress Standing Committee is expected to formally register Liang Yaohui's dismissal in their regular meeting next week.
The announcement did not say which law Liang broke, but it came a month after the NPC annual assembly, from which Liang was absent after the Dongguan Crown Prince Hotel he owned was investigated in a province-wide sex-trade crackdown.
The crackdown - which began in February after a state television programme exposed Dongguan's flourishing sex industry - saw 865 people arrested and more than 3,000 hotels, saunas and massage parlours lose their licences as police raided venues citywide.
Thirty-six city police officials, including Yan Xiaokang , Dongguan's former deputy mayor and head of its public security bureau, were suspended or removed from office on suspicion of having protected businesses involved in prostitution.
Some 854 websites and more than 96,000 public instant-messaging accounts were closed for promoting sex services online.