The document discusses how China's political environment has impacted sex trafficking, sex tourism, and pornography throughout history. It notes that while prostitution was state-sponsored as early as the 7th century BC, private commercialization flourished from the 13th to 19th centuries. When the Communist party gained power in 1949, they launched an anti-prostitution campaign. However, enforcement of laws has been lacking due to corruption. Additionally, China's one-child policy and gender imbalance have contributed to trafficking of women into China from other countries. While China censors the internet, it is largely to control information rather than curb pornography. Grassroots activism is needed to effectively address these issues.

1. How China’s Political Environment Impacts Sex
Trafficking, Sex Tourism, and Pornography

2.  Prostitution in China is rooted in its political history, beginning
as a state-sponsored institution possibly as early as the 7th
century B.C. (Liu & Finckenauer 91).
 Private, commercialized prostitution flourished from the 13th –
19th centuries, largely replacing the state-sponsored brothels (Liu
& Finckenauer 91).
 Acceptance of prostitution and the sex industry at large waxed
and waned throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries (Liu &
Finckenauer 91).
 When the Communist party came into power in 1949, they began
a highly effective anti-prostitution campaign, shutting down
brothels, arresting those involved in the sex industry
(pimps, procurers, brothel owners), and providing education
and vocational training for prostitutes (Liu & Finckenauer 91).

3. When the Communist party
came into power in
1949, they began a highly
effective anti-prostitution
campaign, shutting down
brothels, arresting those
involved in the sex industry
(pimps, procurers, brothel
owners), and providing
education and vocational
training for prostitutes (Liu
& Finckenauer 91). Mao Zedong, founder of China’s
Communist Party

4.  After the Communist Party’s initial campaign, the sex
industry was not considered a policy priority again
until the 1980s, when a slew of social issues such as
prostitution, drug use, and rising crime rates re-
entered the government’s agenda (Liu & Finckenauer
92).
 Today, prostitution is technically illegal in China. In
spite of that, the sex industry retains a strong and
ever-growing presence in the country. Law
enforcement and government officials have proven to
be susceptible to corruption, which hinders the
efficacy of established laws (Liu & Finckenauer 96).

5. The relationship between prostitution, sex
trafficking, and migration within China can be
explained as follows:
“The movements of people trigger the development of
prostitution on both the supply and demand sides.
Working as a prostitute itself makes women vulnerable
to being trafficked (Raymond, 2002)” (Liu &
Finckenauer 99).

6. Chinese women and
children are most often
trafficked within China
(as opposed to
internationally), which is
often linked to the
internal migration that
occurs as impoverished
women search for
economic opportunities
in different regions (Liu
& Finckenauer 97).

7. China’s infamous one-child government policy has led to
an extreme gender imbalance in the population due to
a traditional preference for male offspring, often
prompting selective abortion or infanticide of female
children. Chinese demographic specialists predict that
if the current trends continue, by 2020 there will be
30-40 million Chinese men who are unable to find a
wife within China. This has led to women being
trafficked into China, primarily from the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea (North
Korea), Vietnam, and Myanmar (Pochagina 85).

8. Other political/governmental factors that allow sex
trafficking to prevail in China include:
“The weakening of state control, government
decentralization, non-observance of the existing
laws, imperfect legislation, and corruption of the local
authorities and police (Pochagina 87).”

9. The prevalence of the “gender pyramid” in the global
tourism industry (Hussain 425) is especially
emphasized when it comes to sex tourism. Women
typically are found in occupations with few career
development opportunities, such as
waitresses, chambermaids, cleaners, etc. In
China, these lower level positions lend themselves
easily to participation in the sex industry, as sex
services are offered at a wide variety of businesses, and
specialized brothels are rare (Liu & Finckenauer 92).

10. As Shaker Hussain writes in her article “Women and
Tourism:”
“With sex tourism being the most negative and prominent
example, there is a significant amount of sexual
objectification of women working in the tourism
industry. Studies have shown that women are expected
to dress in an “attractive” manner, to look beautiful (i.e.
slim, young, pretty), and to “play along” with sexual
harassment by customers. Stereotypical images of
women are, in many cases, part of the tourism product.”
(Hussain 425-426)

11. In an article written about Vietnamese sex workers who
are brought to Chinese cities near their shared
border, it is explained that local government officials
typically turn a blind eye to these technically illicit
activities. The economic benefit to the
region, according to those officials, outweighs any
concern for anti-prostitution laws (Zhou & Duong 91).
As previously mentioned, the shortage of women in
China leads to economic demand for women; in this
instance, they are trafficked from Vietnam and
primarily solicited by customers from within the
country.

12. China has cracked down on pornographic web sites during
the past decade, but many believe that is largely due to an
overall desire by the Communist government to control
and monitor all Internet traffic. In 2007 alone, China’s
efforts to remove “unhealthy” web content led to tens of
thousands of sites being shut down (most of which were
pornographic), and the arrests of hundreds of people.
However, this campaign was also used to “stifle online
criticism of the Communist party” and target dissenters.
China also employs tens of thousands of human Internet
censors, and utilizes a complex network of filters to keep
track of Internet activity within the country (“China”).

13. Although China’s Internet censorship has some positive
effects in limiting pornography availability, that is not
its primary purpose:
“China’s purported goal with its internet controls is the
limitation of pornography, gambling, and other harmful
practices, but such content is generally easier to access
than information related to political and religious
groups, human rights violations, and alternative news
sources,” (“China and the Internet” 69).S

14. The manner in which the Communist government of
China addresses sex trafficking, sex tourism, and
pornography has come up quite short of protecting the
victims of these systems of oppression. In spite of the
presence of anti-trafficking and anti-pornography
policies, officials notoriously turn a blind eye to these
practices. What progress has been made in combating
pornography is essentially a byproduct of the
government’s efforts to stifle any political opposition.

15. The Communist party of China practices an extreme version
of top-down policymaking, which means that grassroots
activism is not encouraged or allowed. However, if the
sexual systems of oppression discussed in this presentation
are to be successfully diminished;
“…We would need to start from the local, taking a ‘bottom-up
approach,’ starting at the level of community … drawing upon
knowledge and actions of feminist academic communities
and labor unions, and building upwards to influence national
politics and agendas as well as regional and transnational
policies,” (Kempadoo 196).

16.  China and the Internet. (2009). Harvard International Review, 68-73.
 China Cracks Down on Porn, Again. (2008). Red Herring, 8.
 Hussain, Shaker (2007). "Women and Tourism." Women Worldwide:
Transnational Feminist Perspectives on Women. New York City:
McGraw-Hill, 2011. 424-27. Print.
 Kempadoo, Kamala (2007). “Toward a Vision of Sexual and Economic
Justice.” Women Worldwide: Transnational Feminist Perspectives on
Women. New York City: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 195-197. Print.
 Liu, M. & Finckenauer, J. O. (2010). The Resurgence of Prostitution in
China: Explanations and Implications. Journal Of Contemporary
Criminal Justice, 26(1), 89-102.
 Pochagina, O. (2007). Trafficking in Women and Children in Present-
Day China. Far Eastern Affairs, 35(1), 82-101.
 Zhou, Lei & Bich Hanh Duong (2011). Sex Work in the Sino-Vietnamese
Borderlands. Asian Anthropology, 10, 81-100.