The stocky young woman spies a potential customer and careers across the road on a Flying Pigeon bicycle, forcing an old taxi to swerve to avoid hitting her and the infant that was strapped to her back. With furtive glances up and down the street, she jumps off the bike and produces a black bag full of her illicit wares: pornographic DVDs. The young man in black first shakes his head and keeps walking, but then he stops. It's an awkward encounter as he tries to subtly rifle through her small collection, all the while looking out for prying eyes and pretending to be having an amiable chat. They negotiate. Twenty yuan is handed over, and he scurries off with a DVD in his underarm bag. The baby, with its ruddy cheeks glowing in the bitter winter wind, starts to cry - so the woman fishes a bottle of milk from her bag to appease it before she targets more prospects. Two migrant workers stop and have a good look at her DVDs but walk on without buying. Feeling jittery and exposed in the open, she jumps back on the bike and circles around before zooming in on her next target. She has every right to be nervous, as it's highly dangerous work. Last year, Chinese officials launched a campaign to 'purify the cultural environment'. Someone caught purveying porn, like her, could be detained for weeks or months. But she has an insurance policy, and it's wrapped up in a blanket and tied to her back: the baby is not hers. She rents it at a daily rate for a handful of yuan from its mother. For the DVD seller, the child offers security on two fronts. First, in the eyes of the omnipresent police and security officials, it makes her look like an innocuous mother. But second, and most importantly, it buys her freedom. Under Chinese regulations, anyone with an infant who is detained must have their case dealt with promptly, and they are generally released within 12 hours. So, for a small fee and the cost of feeding the child, the woman has bought herself some security. She is still very fearful, though, and says the people she approaches will often report her to the police, forcing her to furiously pedal away from the scene. Similarly, since 14 ministries launched a joint campaign last year to build a 'green internet' in China - one devoid of pornography, gambling and dissident material - authorities say they have received thousands of tips a day from members of the general public. Tens of thousands of sites have been closed down or blocked, and hundreds of site operators have been arrested, with some culprits getting jail sentences of up to 15 years. Hundreds of people who send sex-related material to mobile phones have also been caught in the net. The latest online sexual phenomenon that is baffling the authorities is 'naked chatting', where reportedly up to 20,000 people are stripping in front of their video cams for the titillation of some cyber pals. It's not illegal, strictly speaking, as generally no money changes hands, but the practice is incensing the authorities, who are intent on stamping it out. Also angered, in one tragic case, was a father in Shandong province who last year caught his 28-year-old daughter stripped down to her bra and making provocative poses in front of her computer. He flew into a rage and strangled her to death. It all shows the society needs more purification, the authorities say, and they are intent on cleaning things up. Peter Goff is a Beijing-based journalist
