By Meg Davis
Chinese authorities hold periodic sweeps to detain sex workers, drug users, and other ‘social undesirables’ en masse in advance of national holidays and major government conferences. Sex workers, including feminist activist Ye Haiyan (also known as Hooligan Sparrow) are increasingly vocal in raising concerns about the effects of these raids, highlighting the hardships faced by the lowest-paid sex workers.
In the often-heated international debate about criminal penalties on sex work, we rarely hear the voices of sex workers themselves. But in China, a new network representing Chinese sex workers says that police crackdowns don’t stop sex work – they only drive sex workers further underground, putting them at higher risk of violence and HIV/AIDS.
