THE CONDOM QUANDARY

also constitutes arbitrary detention and violates the right to a fair trial, in contravention of
international human rights law. 32
The C&E system was first implemented in the 1980s 33 and, as of 2014, according to the
Ministry of Public Security, China had 116 C&E centers nationwide. 34 From 1987 to 2000, a
total of more than 300,000 people were held in such centers. 35 At present, the C&E system
is gradually shrinking, and many localities have stopped implementing it, 36 within the
parameters of a larger debate on whether to maintain, abolish, or revise the entire system. 37
Male sex workers are also regularly detained and penalized. In addition to the penalties
mentioned above, the crime of “assembling a crowd for licentious activity” 38 can also be
used against male sex workers—it targets group sex involving three or more people. 39 In
practice this has meant that for male sex workers providing sexual services involving two
or more participants at the same time, they are more likely to be penalized for this crime
than for sex work. The law has also been used to target gay men in general. For example, in
February 2014, the Guangzhou city PSB raided a gay club and detained the organizers for
the criminal offense of “assembling a crowd for licentious activity.” 40
Transgender sex workers are also targets of law enforcements actions. 41 Asia Catalyst
research has found that China’s transgender female sex workers are a complex group
that includes MSM who engage in sex work while cross-dressing as women, as well as
transgender individuals. Asia Catalyst’s 2014 research with 70 transgender female sex
workers in China found that 64% of the interviewees had been detained by the police. Due
to lack of protocols and training on gender identity, the police regularly detained transgender
women with male detainees and subjected them to discrimination and abuse relating to their
gender expression. 42
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