China has launched a crackdown on prostitution, gambling and drug trafficking, one week after police in Guangdong province raided thousands of entertainment venues suspected of selling sex services.
The Chinese Ministry of Public Security on Sunday ordered police to step up efforts to tackle the three vices, warning officials that they would be held accountable for illegal activities that occurred under their watch.
Signalling that the southern-grown campaign was being introduced across China, the People’s Daily, the Communist party’s flagship newspaper, quoted a public security official as saying that the ministry “attaches great importance to the issue and will resolutely investigate, severely punish and firmly attack the organisers, operators and ‘protective umbrellas’ behind prostitution crimes”.