Foreign schoolboy arrested in China male escort karaoke club police raid

Police in central China arrested 47 people, including a foreign high school student, in connection with a male escort ring operating out of a karaoke club in a raid in the early hours of Friday morning.

Investigators found the club‘s owners had hired more than 20 young men – including the student, whose nationality is unknown – to provide “heterosexual escort services” for female karaoke guests, Chutian Metropolis Daily reported on Tuesday.

The men would also drink and sing with the visitors for 100 yuan (US$14) per hour.

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Entertainment venues in China are banned by law from offering paid escort services and the owners of the club, which opened at the beginning of September, received the maximum penalty. They were fined 20,000 yuan for offering paid escort services and illegally employing foreigners and the club was shut down for six months.

Police also confiscated 13,800 yuan of illegal income from the male escorts.

Wenquan district police have vowed to step up security in the area through “large-scale patrols, prevention measures and investigations” into local businesses.

While police routinely arrest female sex workers during raids on karaoke clubs, spas and hotels in China, cases involving male escorts are less common. Male sex work was made illegal in China in 2003.