The 2010 “Strike Hard Campaign” put in place a zero tolerance policy on sex work, gambling and drugs all across China. While many brothels and popular clubs were closed ultimately sex workers continued work out in more remote areas. This geographic shift cut people off from essential health services, HIV/AIDS education, and even funeral services for women who die while cut off from their families.

Here in its first major report The China Sex Worker Organization Network Forum trained its members to document the effects of the crackdown. With interviews with close to 300 sex workers from around the country the report documents how “local stakeholders, including sex workers, owners of EEs and sex worker service organizations, see the impacts of these crackdowns and their effects on HIV intervention.”

The report (here in its original in Chinese and translated by volunteers in the network into English here), published in December 2011, finds that the crackdown was a disaster for them.