Deng's deadly fruit knife carves open legal debate
- Source: Global Times
- [22:38 June 15 2009]
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Child prostitution ring
Suspects in the Xishui county child prostitution ring scandal sit for the opening of the trial on April 8.
The Deng Yujiao case follows in the wake of a shocking court case involving local government officials, alleged rape and under-age forced school girl prostitution that shattered the harmony of Xishui, a Guizhou Province county with a population of about 800,000, on August 15 last year.
That was the date the first mother went to police with an unlikely-sounding story involving the local government running a child-prostitution ring in the liquor-producing town.
About 100,000 of Xishui’s impoverished residents had left the county in search of work, leaving their children unattended. Wider discussions concentrated on the charges that the seven men should face. When the trial in Xishui County Court opened on April 8, they were charged with having sex with underage prostitutes: facing three to 15 years’ imprisonment.
A fierce public debate ensued, with some arguing the officials should be categorized as rapists, meaning a possible death sentence for having sex with a child under 14 years old.
China Youth Daily reporter Chen Qiang, who investigated the Xishui sex scandals, argued that the charge of “sex with underage prostitutes” was an insult to the abused teenage girls.
“Those girls were raped,” Chen told the Global Times. “They are the victims of this scandal. We should not tolerate the fact that they are regarded the same as common prostitutes according to the charges.”
As public interest heightened, the trial was halted on April 21 by Xishui Procuratorate, saying that the original evidence was incomplete. The case was then referred to the higher-level Intermediate People’s Court in Zunyi on May 17. Amid the passionate public debate, one thing remained certain: whatever the Zunyi court’s decision in this trial, the case will be closely watched.
Disgusted by the adult guardians of under-age schoolgirls forcing them into prostitution to serve their own sordid needs, Chen sees it as his duty to report the case as objectively as humanly possible: to let the public know the whole truth and perhaps play a small role in the construction of a legal system for China.