THE CONDOM QUANDARY

The client and I just finished the business, suddenly a group of undercover cops
burst into the room, and wanted to detain us. I didn’t confess, I’d rather die than
confess! I said I was doing massage. Lucky that the client is not stupid, he said we
only did massage. The police didn’t believe it, they searched my bed, and couldn’t
find any condoms. Luckily we did not use condoms that day, I didn’t have even
one condom with me, otherwise we would have been in trouble. They didn’t have
any evidence, and can’t take us to the police station, so they just released us. 102
For four interview respondents, police entered while they were waiting in the room for
clients, after making arrangements with the client over phone. The police knew about the
situation through monitoring sex workers’ phone call with clients, and then entered the room
to search. Police collected various things, including condoms, telephone recordings and
other items related to sexual service. Interview respondents reported that the police used
condoms to pressure sex workers and clients to confess. Nannan, a female sex worker,
reported that one night when police entered her room while she was waiting for a client,
they searched through her things and found a large bag of condoms. They then forcibly took
her downstairs and put her in a vehicle, where she saw two customers she had served that
day. She continued:
Once we reached the police station, they took my cell phone and played a
recording. The content was a recording of telephone calls I’d made that afternoon,
and after that they brought the two clients over to identify me. The police
confiscated my 900 kuai ($145), claiming it was the proceeds of prostitution. There
was also the large bag of condoms, and they said this was evidence, and that I’d
been caught with the goods, and asked if I would confess to doing it. I saw there
was no way to deny it – the two clients had identified me, and there were the
condoms. There was no choice, so I signed the record of interview. 103
Xiaobei, a male sex worker, said the police came into the hotel room while he was waiting
for a client, searched the room, and found 100 condoms in his bag. They insisted he was
involved in prostitution. Xiaobei reported that after his client arrived, police began asking
him:
“Who are you looking for?” The client was scared and said he’d come to fool
around with me. A policeman asked, “Were you thinking of fooling around for
a whole month? Have you seen that he’s carrying more than 100 condoms?
How long were you planning to fool around? If you two aren’t involved in
prostitution, what is this?” When the policeman said this, he made the client very
uncomfortable, and the client just stammered and admitted it. 104
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