China detains sex work activist

BEIJING - Police have detained a Chinese activist for sex workers' rights a few days after she publicly called for prostitution to be legalised.

Her sister Ye Sha said yesterday that Ye Haiyan was nabbed at the offices of her community group, the China Women's Rights Workshops, and told she would be held for two or three days.

Last week, Ye Haiyan and a few supporters asked people in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where she is based, to sign a petition in support of legalising prostitution, according to an account on her group's website.

She also called for today - August 3 - to be marked as "Sex Workers' Day". Ye Haiyan argued that making prostitution legal would afford sex workers better protection.

Ye Haiyan declined to comment yesterday, saying it was not a convenient time for her to talk.

Prostitution is rampant in China despite frequent government crackdowns, and sexual services are openly offered in massage parlours, karaoke bars and nightclubs.

Until last month, when the ministry of public security issued a ban, police would sometimes organise "prostitute parades" to shame suspected sex workers. The ban came after an outcry over photos of women being paraded barefoot in the streets of Dongguan in Guangdong province, handcuffed and led by a rope around the waist.