economy - The booming sex industry

At the China Herald we often speculate about the number of Chinese online, with mobile phones or engaged in weblogging. Howard French moves in his Letter from China into the sex trade. Official numbers vary between 3 and 20 million sex workers in this country that generate about six percent of the economy. French thinks the number is actually much higher.

The mistresses of officials don't get dragged through the streets. Indeed, their easy path to wealth is envied by many. Low and high, there is degradation for all women, though, in this commerce, and nowhere so much as in the silence that surrounds it.

Like so many aspects of China: it all depends on how you define 'sex worker'. Deposed Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Liangyu was good for 11 concubines, rumors say. So, they are sex workers. But since he also courted a former dancer and high official at the Ministry of Finance: was Chen himself not also a sex worker? Where should we draw the line?