- Sex work is addressed by both administrative and criminal law. The Law on Penalties for Administration of Public Security 2005 (Article 66) make buying and selling sex unlawful as well as 'seducing, sheltering or introducing a person to prostitution'.
- Organizing, forcing or inducing prostitution are illegal.
- Both sellers and buyers of sexual services are liable to fines and administrative detention in re-education centres or 'labour camps'. There are reports of up to fifty thousand sex workers being detained in these camps annually.
- The Regulations for AIDS Prevention and Treatment make selling or buying sex when knowingly infected with a sexually transmissible infection illegal. It carries a penalty of a fine and prison, detention, or surveillance.
- Article 61 of the regulations empowers health authorities to require the provision of condoms in venues and to withdraw permission to conduct business if they do not comply.
- Enforcement varies throughout the country and is generally inconsistent and frequently brutal. Street-based workers are more likely to be arrested than those in establishments. Unless there are aggravating factors the usual punishment is a fine and a warning, and sometimes informing family or public shaming.
- According to sex workers, police collect bribes to avoid arrest and there are arbitrary arrests, assaults, rapes, theft vandalism of property and other violations of human rights by law police and other enforcement agents.
ISOCode:
CN
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