Justice Served? China’s Largest Call-Girl Ring Busted in Beijing
Feb 19, 2012By eChinacities.com   

Editor's note: The following article was translated and edited from a recent article published in The Beijing News, detailing the sentencing of 71 people recently arrested during a call-girl ring bust east of the Olympic Stadium in Beijing. While this may not normally merit attention in Chinese media, what is striking about this particular case is number of people that were arrested, and the unusual severity of the sentencing this time around, given the nature of their crimes committed, in particular, the many people who worked as "card issuers" for the ring (the people going door-to-door sticking a small card with the picture of a "sexy lady" and a phone number into the cracks of the door frame).Is Beijing stepping-up its crackdown on seedy activities, or were these people just the unfortunate recipients of "being made an example of"?

On February 10th, the second mass hearing for the 71 people arrested during a recent "call-girl ring" raid was held at the Court of Justice in the Fengtai District of Beijing, and 34 people (22 Men and 12 Women) were sentenced. This was the largest call-girl ring case in China's history. The oldest defendant was 52, and the youngest was only 19. The first mass hearing (33 people sentenced) took place on January 18th. The head of the call-girl ring, "Mrs Du" and her husband "Mr Cui" were fined and sentenced to 14 years and 13 years in prison, for the crime of organising prostitution. The other 32 people were fined and sentenced to between nine months and seven years in prison for assisting in organising prostitution. The final four members of the call-girl ring will be dealt with in a separate case, as they are minors. In addition, the call-girl ring's prostitutes are still being detained, and have not yet been held criminally liable.

The logistics of running a call-girl ring

According to the defendants' depositions, Du and Cui gradually monopolised the call-girl market in the Asian Games Village area in Chaoyang District (朝阳区亚运村) since they started in 2007 (there are two other call-girl rings in the area). Du and Cui streamlined their operation by using a single line of contact: 1) Their card printer delivered the call-girl cards to them; 2) They gave these cards to the card issuers, who worked in the vicinity of each big hotel, sometimes handing cards directly to hotel guest as they came and went, and sometimes leaving the cards in the door cracks of the hotel rooms; 3) Potential Johns (clients) used the telephone number listed on these cards to contact the card issuer, who determined the price and location for the meeting. The card issuer would determine a price for the trick based on the grade of hotel the john was staying in (500-2,000 RMB); 4) That card issuer would then contact Du and Cui who would then arrange for their full-time "black cab" driver to transport the prostitute to and from the John's room. To satisfy the demands of the Johns, Du would prepare a fake fapiao (invoice) for them; 5) Once the trick (meeting) was done, Du and Cui would collect the prostitute's money, take their commission (100 RMB per trick) and distribute the remaining money among the prostitutes and card issuers.

On a good day, Du and Cui were making more than 5,000 RMB; on a bad day it would be about 500 RMB. According to Du, although she was making good money, because Beijing is "so expensive", she only made about 180,000 RMB per year. At the time their call-girl ring was busted, five girls were working for them as prostitutes. The investigators also discovered that they had used foreign prostitutes in the past, as well as many underage prostitutes. Apparently, the girls all worked an equal amount; they drew numbers each night to queue up for their turns. In a given night, each girl would normally see 2-3 clients, or 4-5 on an exceptionally busy night.

Were the sentences too harsh?

According Zhang Yalin (张亚林), the associate Chief Judge of the criminal court at the Fengtai Court of Justice, the penalty for these 71 people was mainly based on their role in the call-girl ring and how much they profited from it. For example, "Mr Hu", who managed eight card issuers himself, was sentenced to six years, while "Mr Zhou", who handled the card printing, was sentenced to four years. In addition, "Mr Wan", "Mr Zeng", "Mr Yang" and three other people, who each have a prior record, were given stricter sentences of between 5-7 years in prison.

Upon hearing that she'd received a 14-year sentence, 28 year-old Du, weeping said: "All I did was serve as an intermediary for some prostitutes, is that worth 14 years? There is so much prostitution going on in society. Why make an example out of me? I know what I did was wrong, but the crime is hardly that serious. This is typical social conduct; there have always been prostitutes, all through the ages. I don't understand the law, but I don't think this is a huge deal." Cui and other defendants also believe that their sentencing was too harsh. All of them are considering appealing to a higher court.

In response to Du's comment that the sentencing was too harsh, Zhang Yalin, the associate Chief Judge of the criminal court at the Fengtai Court of Justice explained that organising prostitution has always been regarded as a major crime in China, and that the standard sentence is five years in prison. If the circumstances are more serious, that sentence can be increased to 10 years or more. When the circumstances are particularly bad, the sentence can become life in prison or even the death penalty. In measuring the sentences for the Du and Cui, four factors came into play:

   1. The duration of their criminal behaviour was long – they'd organised prostitution for four years (2007-2011).
   2. Under their management, they'd employed as many as ten prostitutes at one time.
   3. They employed nearly 70 card issuers who distributed a huge amount of these "call-girl" cards.
   4. They both highly profited from the operation – the base "management" fee for each prostitute each month was 1,000 RMB, added to the 100 RMB commissions they collected for each trick.


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