China breaks up male prostitution ring
BEIJING (Reuters) - Four Chinese men have been jailed for up to 5- years for running a male prostitution service that sold sex to other men, state media said Wednesday.
Zheng Shuyi registered the website nannanboy.com -- the word "nan" being Chinese for "man" -- and advertised it as a spa, but he used it to recruit male prostitutes, the official Xinhua news agency said on its website (www.xinhuanet.com).
He then hired two rooms and sold sex for up to 400 yuan ($60) a session, the report said.
The prostitutes, based in the eastern province of Zhejiang, "went when they were called and offered their services," it added.
Zheng's defense had tried to argue that the law against prostitution only applied to women selling sex. The court disagreed and said the law did not define the sex, Xinhua said.
While homosexuality is not illegal in China, prostitution is. One of the men, who had syphilis, was also found guilty of spreading a sexual disease.
Prostitution was stamped out in the years following the Communist revolution in 1949, but has returned with a vengeance following sweeping economic and social reforms over the last three decades.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)
