Lawmaker owner of hotel involved in sex services scandal
Print Edition
The owner of a five-star hotel accused of offering sex services in a China Central Television program is a lawmaker and billionaire, it was revealed yesterday.
In CCTV’s undercover report, the Crown Prince Hotel in the southern city of Dongguan was shown to have rooms where naked prostitutes danced behind two-way mirrors for clients to choose.
The hotel’s owner is 47-year-old Dongguan native Liang Yaohui, who was a deputy to the National People’s Congress last year, China National Radio reported.
Liang has built up a multimillion-dollar business in the service industry and opened the Crown Prince Hotel in Huangjiang Town in 1996. He is also said to control the nation’s largest hotel, the Dongguan OYV International Convention Hotel.
In recent years, he invested in oil wells and became an executive with the Zhongyuan Petroleum Group. He is said to own 10 oil wells in Kazakhstan, CNR reported.
There has been no response so far from the hotel or Liang.
Another high-end hotel in the city in southern Guangdong Province, the Sheraton Dongguan in Houjie Town, denied any connection to a sauna center which CCTV said provided sex services.
“With reference to CCTV 13 news coverage, Sheraton Dongguan Hotel would like to confirm that this sauna club operation is not under Sheraton management,” its statement read.
“This operation is in a building adjacent to Sheraton Dongguan Hotel and operated by a third party organization. Sheraton Dongguan Hotel operates in compliance with relevant local laws and regulations,” it added.
Sunday’s CCTV program claimed that sex services were openly available at massage parlors, hotels, sauna centers and karaoke clubs in Dongguan.
Under investigation
Just hours after the program aired, the Ministry of Public Security and Guangdong provincial police sent special teams to crack down on the illegal trade.
The city government said 1,948 entertainment venues had been checked and 39 were found to be involved in prostitution and other sexual services. Some 162 people were placed under investigation.
Local police stations are being investigated for dereliction of duty and eight police officers have been suspended.
Two city police chiefs had been suspended.
A three-month crackdown on pornography and gambling across Dongguan is to be carried out and any police officers found to have protected the sex trade will be severely punished, the government said.
China outlawed prostitution in 1949, but it returned with a vengeance following landmark economic reforms three decades ago, and has helped fuel a rise in HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.
Last month, Dongguan authorities said there was a high incidence of HIV/AIDS amid rumors that more than 2,700 sex workers had been infected.
Guangdong Provincial Party boss Hu Chunhua stressed the need “to conduct an extensive trawling-style crackdown on the entire city,” according to a report in the Nanfang Daily.
“Although no evidence has been provided, it is widely speculated by the public that local police offer protection for Dongguan’s rampant prostitution,” Xinhua news agency said yesterday in a commentary.
While periodic sweeps against vice have been carried out, including during sensitive periods such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, the industry has thrived.
The Dongguan region has long been known as a hub for the sex industry. According to Xinhua, the area is famous for its massive, lavish casino resorts, bath centers, and massage parlors, as well as its backstreet brothels.
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