At the start of August, a group of female sex workers in Hubei province protested against the treatment of sex workers during recent police crackdowns, and petitioned for the legalization of prostitution. The protest was led by an activist and blogger known as Hooligan Sparrow (real name Ye Haiyan), and was the first ever demonstration by prostitutes in China. However, it was not the first to lobby for better treatment of women in the sex trade. In Shenzhen, in 2006, over 3000 people took to the streets to express their disgust at the humiliating treatment of prostitutes during police raids. The most recent crackdowns have been the most stringent yet, and have (along with the public reaction they have stirred) raised questions about China’s ever-growing sex trade, including whether or not it should be decriminalized.

The World Health Organization estimates that China has four million sex workers, but other sources (and common sense) double or triple this figure. Under Chinese criminal law, the third parties involved in sex work i.e. pimps, madams, and go-betweens, are punishable by fines, prison sentences and even death in the case of traffickers. However, buying and selling sex are not actually crimes, as long as the sex worker is not a minor. Instead they are dealt with as breaches of public security according to the regulations of the People’s Republic of China. Punishments range from 15 days in custody to a fine of up to 5000 RMB.

Prostitution in China dates back to imperial times in which a man would have several concubines as well as a wife. It was the wife’s duty to carry on the family line, while the concubine’s sole purpose was to look beautiful and satisfy her master’s sexual needs. In ancient China, the roles available to a woman were wife, concubine, servant, nun, or common street prostitute, and concubines were very much a part of family life. Then, as now, there were hierarchies among sex workers. The lowest class worked in dangerous, seedy red light districts. Mid-priced prostitutes operated from adequately kept brothels, and the highest order – known as “blue mansion girls” – were courtesans skilled in conversation and performance, like Japanese geisha. It was this type of prostitute that inspired the classic novel Dream of the Red Chamber. This corresponds to the modern pecking order which has street prostitutes who service migrant workers at the bottom, salon girls on the middle rungs, and Gucci-toting KTV girls at the top.

Shanghai was the epicenter of prostitution in China during its time as a foreign treaty port after the Opium Wars. It was even nicknamed “Whore of the Orient” thanks to its reputation for vice. Some of the city’s plethora of brothels were actually legal, and the sex trade brought in the most revenue from tax after hotels and restaurants. The 1911 Revolution may have put an end to much of Shanghai’s decadence, but it certainly didn’t stop prostitution. It wasn’t until 1949, that China succeeded in stamping out the trade, however briefly. The Marxist ideals that Chairman Mao held so dear stated that prostitutes were victims of unscrupulous pimps, so the new PRC banned prostitution in 1951. Thanks to a totalitarian process of crackdowns and re-education of sex workers at Women’s Labor Training Institutes, the trade had been wiped out by 1958. Of course, illegal brothels still operated, and a good few sex workers were kept for Party use, but prostitution had disappeared from public view.

Deng Xiaoping’s capitalist-leaning economic reforms of 1978 led to China opening up to the world, and prostitution came back with a vengeance. Police were unable to stanch the flood, and the sex trade grew and grew. Interestingly, a cadre named Cao Manzhi from Deng’s administration claimed that the legalization of prostitution was a natural progression under a capitalist regime, but his words fell on deaf ears. Even today, three decades later, China is no closer to legalizing or decriminalizing the sex trade as it was under Deng.

Lifting the government ban on China’s sex trade would benefit the nation on many levels. Not only would a huge stigma be removed from millions of women who are using the only means available to raise themselves out of poverty, but these women would be more likely to report violence and have regular health checks. The spread of AIDS would be slowed, and China would finally be in accordance with the UN Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which calls for widespread legalization of prostitution.

Decriminalization and legalization are two distinct reforms. The former would remove penalizations for sex workers, allowing them to seek medical help and police intervention in case of violence from clients or pimps. The latter would place the sex trade in the hands of the state. While good in theory, legalization would drive prostitution underground. Illegal brothels would spring up beside state-run establishments, helmed by corrupt madams trying to evade tax.

However, despite the best efforts of the UN, and a small contingent of protesters within China, public opinion is firmly against decriminalizing prostitution. It seems that reforming the sex trade is low on the nation’s priority list. During the recent Wuhan protests, activist Hooligan Sparrow said, "Our society has many problems that are neglected by the public, and prostitution is one of them" and this is certainly the case. It is only when the government agrees to look at prostitution objectively and without judgment that progress can be made to make life better for China’s countless sex workers.

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