Last Friday, three and a half years after a CCTV documentary exposed widespread prostitution in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan and spurred a massive government crackdown on the city’s illicit sex trade, the owner of a five-star hotel featured on the exposé was sentenced to life behind bars.
Liang Yaohui’s high-end hotel, the Crown Prince Hotel Dongguan, was the site of a substantial prostitution operation that began back in 2004 and reportedly involved underage girls, according to Sixth Tone.
A decade after Liang’s hotel launched its ‘comfort’ services, in February 2014, the abovementioned CCTV report resulted in local authorities conducting a crackdown in the city. At the time, sociologist Li Yinhe told Global Times that while prostitution and pornography is prevalent across China, it is especially established in Dongguan because of the city's ‘loose controls.’
As reported by That’s back in April 2014, in the aftermath of the anti-prostitution operations, Dongguan, once referred to as China’s ‘sex capital,’ saw a decline in the number of visitors to the city and falling hotel revenue.
In the 2014 CCTV doc, one female manager said: "You just lie down there and the lady will serve you all around"
Sixth Tone reports that, according to prosecutors, Liang’s hotel-slash-brothel pulled in more that RMB48 million in revenue in 2013, with much of that money coming from 100,000 paid sexual encounters.
READ MORE: China's 'Sex Capital' Sees Visitor Slump After Prostitution Crackdown
In addition to his conviction for “organizing prostitution,” Liang was found guilty of bribery and “bid rigging,” the act of interfering to guarantee privileged consideration for profitable government deals, according to Sixth Tone.
Besides owning “dozens of businesses” that include the Crown Prince Hotel, Liang also boasts a notable list of political achievements, including being elected to the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress in 2008 and gaining a spot in the National People’s Congress in 2012.
Fees for sexual services ranged from hundreds to thousands of renminbi, depending on the service requested and the appearance of the sex worker
Throughout his trial Liang argued his innocence, claiming that he didn’t have the time to personally manage the dealings of the hotel and had no idea of its mega-brothel status until the CCTV story was aired.
All Liang’s properties will be seized as a result of the guilty verdict and he will remain incarcerated for the rest of his life. Forty-six other defendants were sentenced for their role in the prostitution operation, with three being handed suspended sentences and the remainder receiving at least 16 months behind bars, according to The Paper.
READ MORE: Beijing Police Arrest 77 in Nightclub Prostitution Raids
With files from Tamia Tang.
[Images via The Paper, China News, CNS]
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