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Mark O'Neill

In 1964, China announced to an astonished world that it had abolished prostitution - which had flourished in the Middle Kingdom for more than 2,000 years.

 People marvelled at, then praised, the 15-year-old republic's 'miracle'. But China had spoken too soon.

 Since then, the world's oldest profession has made a dramatic return, a side effect of 20 years of Deng Xiaoping's reforms, wiping out one of the proudest achievements of the communist state.

 Official figures published this week show that police across the mainland arrested 250,000 prostitutes in 1997, a 20-fold increase over the 12,281 detained in 1984.

 The number of women working in the profession is now estimated at between 800,000 and 2.5 million.

 Police divide prostitutes into seven categories, from high to low-class.

 The top tier comprises the er-nai (second milk), the long-term mistresses of rich people, including local officials and businessmen, as well as those from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. These women are paid by the month and are usually given flats and all their living expenses.

 Second-level prostitutes are similar to er-nai but do not live with their customers. Instead, they go with them for a limited period, perhaps on a business trip, and are paid according to the length of time they spend with their client.

 The third are known as the 'three halls', because they work at dance halls, music clubs and restaurants. They chat with customers who buy drinks at inflated prices. Sleeping with them involves an additional payment.

 Fourth are the 'doorbell girls' who advertise their services by telephone and invite clients to their own rooms. Fifth are women who work in beauty and massage parlours, including shops offering 'foot massage'.

 Sixth are those who solicit customers outside restaurants and cinemas; they start the clock as soon as the film begins.

 Last, and cheapest, are those who serve the needs of the tens of thousands of migrant workers, sometimes just for the cost of a meal. They are known as the 'tent of the laid-off worker'.

 How different it all was in the puritan early days of communism.

 In autumn 1949, Marshal Nie Rongzhen, then mayor of Beijing, ordered police to close the capital's brothels as a model for the nation.

 In the early evening of November 21, about 2,400 officers in 27 teams swung into action.

By next morning, they had shut down 224 brothels, both public and private, and detained 1,316 women.

 Three committees were established.

 One dealt with the owners and managers, another disposed of their property and the third set about 're-educating and re-making' the women.

 They were taught skills like cooking and making clothes. By February 1950, 505 had married, 374 had been sent home and 34 had become nurses.

 In Shanghai, the mainland's pre-1949 sin city, police had to move more carefully because prostitution employed so many people and they had other enemies to fight.

 They decided to close the industry slowly.

 Police chiefs ordered brothels to register, apply for permits and provide the names, addresses and work-units of all customers, which they could inspect each day. Civil servants, soldiers and people without identity documents were not allowed to enter.

 Women with venereal diseases were not allowed to take clients and soliciting on the street was banned. Police raided premises at night and collected names as a way of putting pressure on clients.

 In November 1949, the city set up its first 're-education centre' which in two years had processed more than 400 women.

 Cities all over the country followed the lead of Beijing and Shanghai and moved against the industry as and when they had dealt with more urgent problems, such as rooting out remnants of the nationalist army, feeding the people and reviving the devastated economy.



Vice-like grip on oldest profession loosened