The threat of ‘education’ still hanging over China’s prostitutes
- Activists and a top official have called for the abolition of ‘shelters’ where sex workers and their clients can be held for up to two years but laws underpinning them remain on the books
When Chinese legislators recommended the abolition of “education” detention centres where prostitutes and clients can be held without charge for two years, activists hoped the facilities’ days were numbered.
They will have to wait longer.
The rubber-stamp National People’s Congress (NPC) passed only one new law when it ended its annual session on Friday – and it had to do with opening up foreign investment.
Under the nearly three-decade-old system, police have unilateral power to detain sex workers and their clients for up to two years in “shelter and education” centres.
Critics say the centres have little to do with education.
“There may be resistance inside the regime against abolition, perhaps by the police, as this would take away some of its arbitrary detention powers,” said Wang Yaqiu, a researcher at Human Rights Watch.