UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Whore, the Hostess, and the Honey: Policing, Health, Business and the Regulation of Prostitution in China Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1wj768wf Author Boittin, Margaret Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California The Whore, the Hostess, and the Honey: Policing, Health, Business and the Regulation of Prostitution in China By Margaret Leith Boittin A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Kevin O’Brien, Co-Chair Professor Steven K. Vogel, Co-Chair Professor Robert A. Kagan Professor Amalia D. Kessler Professor Robert J. MacCoun Professor Laura Stoker Summer 2015 The Whore, the Hostess, and the Honey: Policing, Health, Business and the Regulation of Prostitution in China © 2015 by Margaret Leith Boittin Abstract The Whore, the Hostess, and the Honey: Policing, Health, Business and the Regulation of Prostitution in China by Margaret Leith Boittin Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science University of California, Berkeley Professor Kevin O’Brien, Co-Chair Professor Steven K. Vogel, Co-Chair Despite being illegal, prostitution is rampant in China today. Millions of women work in the sex industry, responding to high demand from the male population. Sex workers and clients span all social classes, from poor migrants to college students and elite officials. The phenomenon is ubiquitous throughout rural and urban areas. In acknowledging the disconnect between the legal status of prostitution and its prevalence, thoughtful experts on China generally assume that the state turns a blind eye to prostitution. They note the economic advantages of a vibrant sex industry, and underscore the extent to which individual officials and local agencies actually participate in the business of prostitution. These observers are correct to note the financial benefits of prostitution to the Chinese economy. Yet they fail in assuming state complacency vis-à-vis prostitution. Instead, my research uncovers the existence of an active and complex regulatory dynamic both between, and amongst, various Chinese authorities and actors within the sex industry. In this study of state control of the market for sex in China, I uncover the state’s three approaches to prostitution: law enforcement, public health, and as a source of economic development. This detailed depiction of the state’s multifaceted regulatory interventions into the sex industry highlights the question of how these frequently conflicting policies coexist in practice. More specifically, how does the state simultaneously uphold policing policies that lead sex workers to shy away from the state and hide their involvement in prostitution for fear of arrest, and health policies that, to work effectively, require sex workers to openly disclose to state actors that they sell sex? How does it reconcile commercial policies whose goal is to allow the state to benefit from a thriving sex industry, with law enforcement regulations aimed at abolishing prostitution? Through an observation of actual enforcement patterns, I show that the answer to these questions varies based on tier of prostitution, and whether the state is targeting the low-tier (“whores”), middle-tier (“hostesses”), or elite (“honeys”) parts of the sex industry. By uncovering these tier-based enforcement patterns, I find that the Chinese authorities are not actually implementing policies to best achieve their stated goals surrounding 1 prostitution: reducing both its occurrence, and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS. Instead, they make enforcement decisions around prostitution that prioritize both economic growth and social stability—the cornerstones of the Chinese Communist Party’s strategy for maintaining power. They prioritize economic growth by taxing the entertainment venues that harbor prostitution activities, and the women who work in them. They also refrain from aggressive policing of those venues, instead channeling their law enforcement efforts towards the lowest class of sex workers, who contribute minimally to the overall economy of the sex industry. They prioritize social stability by allowing for the existence of a thriving sex industry, rather than aggressively enforcing anti- prostitution laws in ways that would significantly reduce the availability of sex for purchase. They further address public order concerns tied to prostitution by funneling it off of the streets and into venues, where it becomes less visible. This strategy also facilitates the control of prostitution’s negative externalities, which the police can efficiently access and control when prostitution occurs in one space surrounded by numerous third parties who can report violence and other issues. The decision to prioritize economic growth and social stability comes at the expense of effectively carrying out the state’s official policing and public health goals around prostitution. 2 Table of Contents Table of Contents ................................................................................................................. i List of Tables and Figures ................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................. iii Chapter One: Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 Chapter Two: Historical and Contemporary Context of Prostitution in China ................ 30 Chapter Three: Prostitution Policies in Contemporary China .......................................... 51 Chapter Four: The Daily Lives, Demographics and Sexual Behaviors of Low- and Middle-Tier Sex Workers ................................................................................................. 81 Chapter Five: State Interventions into the Lives of Low-Tier Sex Workers--Primacy of the Police ......................................................................................................................... 107 Chapter Six: State Interventions into the Lives of Hostesses--Misplaced Health Outreach and Police Accommodation ............................................................................................ 131 Chapter Seven: Honeys--Prostitution and the Corruption of China’s Elite .................... 168 Chapter Eight: Conclusion .............................................................................................. 182 i List of Tables and Figures List of Tables Table 3.1 Annual Number of Cases of Prostitution, 1997-2013 Table 3.2 Individual Income Taxation Rate by Monthly Earnings Table 3.3 Individual Income Tax Amounts for Beijing Beauty Salon Personnel Table 3.4 Individual Income Tax Amounts for Beijing Bathhouse and Massage Parlor Personnel Table 3.5 Individual Income Tax Amounts for Beijing Entertainment Venue Personnel Table 4.1 Current Work Location of Sex Worker Survey Respondents Table 4.2 Education Level of Low-Tier Sex Workers Table 4.3 Number of Survey Respondents According to Province of Origin Table 4.4 Reported Number of Clients in Preceding Week for Sex Workers, According to Venue Type Table 4.5 Reported Number of Clients in Preceding Month for Sex Workers, According to Venue Type Table 4.6 Percentage of Sex Workers Who Got a Health Check Up in the Past Year, by Type of Venue Table 4.7 Percentage of Sex Workers Who Had Heard of HIV/AIDS, by Type of Venue Table 4.8 Percentage of Sex Workers Who Previously Got an HIV/AIDS Test, by Type of Venue Table 5.1 Types of Punishments Arrested Sex Workers Reported Receiving Table 5.2 Relative Frequency of Punishments Police Report for Sex Workers Table 5.3 Reasons for Changes in Enforcement Rates over the Course of One Year Table 5.4 Reported Reasons Police Crack Down on Prostitution Table 5.5 Types of Punishments Arrested Sex Workers and their Clients Received Table 5.6 Relative Frequency of Punishments Police Report for Sex Workers and Clients List of Figures Figure 1.1 Photograph of Author in a Police Car After Spending Day with Local Law Enforcement Officers Figure 6.1 Entertainment Venue Placard Forbidding Drugs, Gambling, and Prostitution ii Acknowledgments I thank all of my dissertation committee members for their steadfast support throughout graduate school. Kevin O’Brien has been boundlessly generous with his time. I learned to block out two or three hours for any meeting with him, and am lucky to have received thorough, line-by-line comments on the written work I have given him over the years. He has taught me the value of focusing on “low-hanging fruit” in the research process, and is also unfailingly insightful in navigating the professional inroads of academia. Steven Vogel’s feedback is refreshingly and immediately actionable. I am grateful for the calm demeanor with which he always delivers it, which more than once has helped dislodge me from an intellectual rut, and allowed me to move forward productively. I thank Bob Kagan for the genuine warmth and enthusiasm that he exudes when delivering feedback. Interactions with him leave me energized, with a renewed sense of excitement about my work. Laura Stoker held my hand as I plunged into unfamiliar survey research methods territory, giving me both the concrete