Madam is sentenced to die in Peking

PROSTITUTION IS everywhere in China but government policy on how to deal with the country's thriving sex industry also appears to be out of control. Yesterday it was announced that Ma Yulan, a 41-year-old Peking woman, had been sentenced to death for procuring women for prostitution at her Yuquan Restaurant.

Had she been operating a nightclub in some of China's other cities, Ms Ma would have collected taxes from her establishment's san pei xiaojie (literally: three-accompaniments girls, meaning drinking, singing and dancing) to pass on to the local government, regardless of whether they were also selling sex.

Chinese law is clear that prostitution or organising prostitutes is illegal, but a recent decision by several cities to impose taxes on the san pei girls has thrown an ambiguous and often inconsistent government policy into the spotlight, especially when the death sentence is elsewhere being handed down for pimping.

Some nightclub san pei women restrict their services to drinking, singing and dancing with their male clients, but it is well established that others provide a lot more for the right price.

A number of local governments in places as widely flung as Shenyang in the north-east rustbelt province of Liaoning, and Putian in the southern coastal province of Fujian, have decided that local coffers should benefit from the san pei nightclub-hostess business, whatever the women do.

Such places have imposed a flat-rate monthly tax charge on the san pei; Shenyang charges 300 yuan a month, while in Putian it is just 100 yuan.

Both authorities would obviously deny that they were collecting taxes from women who also sell sex.

There was a time when China prided itself on how Chairman Mao had stamped out prostitution after the Communist victory in 1949. Times have changed. A recent article in the China Women's News estimated the number of Shenyang's san pei women at 100,000. Even if only a minority extend their services to prostitution that is still a considerable number in an increasingly dangerous trade.

"These [san pei] ladies become easy prey due to their complicated social activity, unlawful activity, weak strength and poor consciousness for self-protection," the newspaper said. In the past three years 90 san pei women had been murdered in Shenyang, about a third by robbers after their earnings. Aids is another threat, with China's estimated 300,000 HIV cases forecast to reach 1 million by 2000.

Prostitution is so widespread it is impossible to avoid. From five-star hotel foyers to karaoke and entertainment centres, in dance halls and massage parlours, and hairdressing and beauty salons, sex is for sale in China's market economy - and usually quite openly. There are venues to suit all pockets and customers, whether mainlanders or overseas Chinese or foreign businessmen. Rising unemployment means many young women keen to earn money however they can.

Most of the time the police do nothing about the sex industry; indeed, it is widely assumed that they must sometimes take their cut and even have a stake in some of the entertainment ventures. But once in a while it is time for someone to be made an example of. Thus the case of Ms Ma was yesterday given an unusually high profile, perhaps because of a recent central- government edict to crack down on prostitution.

The reports said Ms Ma had been sentenced to death "for arranging and hosting prostitution", the first death sentence for this crime for nearly two years. She was found to have profited from running prostitutes at the Yuquan Restaurant, the Shiquan Bathhouse, and the Xijiao Hotel, which she partly owned. She pimped for "more than a dozen" prostitutes, the verdict said. Eight other unidentified defendants were given jail terms of up to eight years. Ms Ma's sentence, which may already have been carried out, contrasts with the situation on the ground elsewhere.

A three-star hotel in Putian city said the local tax bureau urged the hotels and nightclubs to collect the tax from the nightclub hostesses and forward it. One of the "entertainment cities" in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, said each of the san pei women who worked in the karaoke rooms paid 200 yuan a month in tax.

"If the woman goes out and sells sex, that's individual behaviour and should be punished by the regulations. That's another concept," said a room manager.