[Big read] China’s sex workers find opportunities with tech but big data sparks fear

Qiqi (pseudonym)‘s bedroom is devoid of natural light. It is a room illuminated solely by a bedside lamp in the corner that is always switched on. This is her “classroom”.

The term “classroom” is part of the lexicon of code words used in China’s sex industry. Others include “attending class” for sexual services, “teacher” for the sex provider, “student” for the client, and “classroom” for where the “lessons” are conducted.  

For the past four years, Qiqi, a 31-year-old sex worker in Shenzhen, has been plying her trade to men from all walks of life out of a rented apartment. 

I interviewed Qiqi in said apartment, which is unremarkably decorated and furnished, with the only striking thing being the disposable bedsheets covering the double bed in the bedroom. 

She shared, “I change the bedsheets after each client. We are very particular about hygiene in our line of work.”

Qiqi’s “class schedule” is clearly listed online, along with the price of her services. She charges 3,000 RMB (US$413) for each “lesson”, which can last up to an hour. 

With a chuckle, she said, “Even though it is an hour on paper, most students finish class in 20 to 30 minutes.”

The 1.7-metre tall Qiqi, who is from Tianjin, has an enviable figure that attracts all sorts of clients: from the young to the old, and from the well-dressed to the nondescript ones. She never asks about their personal details and backgrounds because “it is basic professional ethics”.

Even so, she still learns a thing or two about their preferences over time from her brief encounters with them. 

She let on that some clients who appear prim and proper may actually have certain fetishes, such as requesting her to wear black stockings or engage in acts of sadomasochism. There are even some who want her to roleplay as a mother or daughter, and for her to address them as “son” or “dad” during sex acts.

Qiqi said, “As a service provider, I try to satisfy their desires as long as they are not excessive.”

Even though prostitution is illegal in China, this has not hindered its sex industry from prospering. British non-governmental organisation International Union of Sex Workers estimates that China has the most sex workers globally, numbering more than five million. In second place is India, another populous country, where the number of sex workers is estimated to be three million, significantly fewer than in China. 

Even though China does not have official figures on the number of its sex workers, according to the China Statistical Yearbook, the number of prostitution cases handled by its Ministry of Public Security grew continuously over the last decade, from 84,375 cases in 2013 to 152,130 in 2022.  

Associate Professor Ding Yu from the Department of Sociology and Social Work in Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, has been studying China’s sex workers and sex industry for many years. She pointed out to Lianhe Zaobao that the sex industry exists to cater to the sexual needs of certain segments in society. With males outnumbering females, the gender imbalance is becoming more pronounced in China, so an increasing number of single males would turn to prostitution to vent their sexual impulses.

Prostitution is a social phenomenon that exists in many places around the world and it has more than three millennia of history in Chinese culture. Ding noted that sex is an intrinsic human need and its related industries have existed since ancient times. However, with the rapid development of China’s economy and society, there have been subtle changes to the motivations and backgrounds of its sex providers over the last decade or so.

Ding explained that in the past, women turned to sex work because they had few options owing to their limited literacy and educational attainments, and were unwilling to work in factories. Nowadays, many sex workers have decent education levels and family backgrounds. For most of them, the deteriorating labour market means that the sex industry is an alternative way to earn money to afford their desired lifestyles.

The barriers to entry in prostitution have been greatly lowered by technology and the increasing use of online platforms. This allows women from all walks of life to work or moonlight in the industry. It is said that some university students even brandish their student cards for clients to verify their age and identity. Lianhe Zaobao was unable to verify the veracity of such accounts. 

Women who are interested in providing sexual services only need to advertise on online platforms to communicate directly with clients and transact. This modus operandi cuts out the middleman like pimps and mama-sans to allow sex workers greater autonomy over marketing and service provision.

SYSU’s Ding said, “The operations of the entire sex industry have become more transparent, professional and standardised. I believe that this is the industry’s future direction.” 

To avoid regulators, sex workers usually post their ads on Telegram, a messaging app banned in China. These public Telegram groups often adopt the guise of “student exchange communities” and are categorised by region. Most Chinese cities have at least one such group dedicated to it, with some even having separate groups for different administrative precincts.  

Qiqi regularly posts her photographs, video clips, personal details and “class schedule” on Telegram to attract clients. She noted that one needs to bypass local internet censorship to use the app, so not many clients come by this way. She added that currently, those in her industry are using an app that few know about and that does not require climbing over the Great Firewall to attract and transact with clients. 

Qiqi gets three or four clients through this channel every day. Unless she is away on vacation or menstruating, Qiqi works almost daily. This allows her to earn an average of 50,000 to 60,000 RMB each month. At times, she can even make as much as 100,000 RMB. 

Qiqi revealed that her charges are considered high in the industry, and emphasised that this has nothing to do with her looks and service standards. Instead, it is down to the pricing of the community she is in. This so-called community refers to her chat group in the lesser-known app mentioned earlier, where there are tens of thousands of group members who are sex workers or clients.

She said, “Everyone in the community can transact and also be an intermediary. We refer work to each other and share the benefits. We can earn more this way since we do not have to pay commission to a third party.” 

However, it is not easy to enter the community. One would need an invitation code to register an account on the app. 

After reaching out as a potential customer to several peddlers of invitation codes for the app, I learnt that the market price for an invitation code is 500 RMB, and one has to pay another 3,000 RMB for admission into a community. 

Such high entry requirements deter the unwelcome and regulators. When I grumbled about the excessive fees, one seller replied, “I am staking my reputation to admit you.”

Throughout the three interview sessions with Qiqi, she spoke freely about sensitive and personal issues, but held back somewhat when it came to the app. She explained, “The app we use has been changed thrice over the last few years. I don’t want it to be exposed for fear that the police would notice it and cause hundreds of thousands of people to lose their rice bowls.” 

Meanwhile, the rise of online platforms also means that more criminals are using prostitution to lure victims as their scams become more novel with technological progress. 

Huang Jie (pseudonym), a Shenzhen businessman who admits to visiting sex workers every month, told me that even though there are more options available online, he sticks to conventional channels like night clubs and finds sex workers through the mama-sans he is familiar with.

He explained, “It is much safer to deal offline. I get to choose the girls I like directly and there is a lesser chance of being catfished and scammed. After all, we are out to have a good time, so it is quite pointless to have to worry about this and that during the process.”

For sex workers, emotional detachment is an essential skill. But to truly attain this state, there is a hefty price to pay.

For Qiqi, the lucrative monetary rewards justify her inner pain and struggles. She said, “I used to be rather conservative and reserved, and never imagined that I would turn out like this. But now that I have money, I don’t care anymore.” 

As their only child, Qiqi’s parents treated her like a princess and gave her a good life. However, when she was 14 years old, her mother’s gambling addiction plunged her family into debt. Her family was torn apart and their wealth depleted.

“All the shares in our company were transferred away by my mother. Our family went from being affluent to being destitute, leading to my parents’ divorce. Overnight, I went from a helpless princess to a servant. I had to figure out my tuition fees and living expenses on my own,” she shared.

During high school, Qiqi became a nightclub hostess and drank with customers to supplement her family income. After graduating, she worked various part-time jobs, and even operated a foot reflexology shop and a nail salon.  

In a cruel twist of fate, Qiqi followed her mother’s path and became addicted to online gambling in 2020. She lost all her savings within a year and incurred gambling debts exceeding 5 million RMB.

Just when she was at her wits’ end, a friend in the sex industry suggested that she give sex work a try since she was desperate for money and it pays well. Qiqi recounted, “I was in too much debt then and was so scared that I didn’t think it through before following her to Shenzhen. I was clueless at the start but slowly learnt.”

Today, Qiqi has paid off her debts. Over the last few years, she was able to earn money quickly through prostitution but her spending caught up as well. Her freewheeling lifestyle cost her more than 40,000 RMB a month, and thus she is unable to extricate herself from the industry.

She said, “I am still hooked on gambling. I go to Macau to gamble once or twice every few months. The pleasure of gambling is much more exciting than sex, and the feeling I get when I turn over the winning hand in baccarat is better than an orgasm.”

Like most women, Qiqi craves companionship and love. But she is well aware that choosing this path has significantly altered her life, leaving her no choice but to accept solitude.

Qiqi’s last relationship was in 2021. Not long after she became a sex worker, she unintentionally fell in love with a regular. She recalled, “I wasn’t that experienced then and started developing feelings for him after some time.”

Their relationship lasted just over a year before Qiqi ended it. She clarified, “He was actually very nice to me. He did not hinder my work and even gave me money to spend. I guess I felt that our relationship would not lead anywhere, so there wasn’t much point in being together. In fact, it was a distraction and I wasn’t able to work freely because I felt that I had to take his feelings into account while working.”

After the experience, Qiqi is well aware that developing real feelings for clients is a taboo for sex workers, so she actively rejects any contact with them outside work. Since she does not socialise much outside her job, Qiqi has given up hopes of finding a romantic partner and no longer harbours any illusion towards love and marriage. 

She shared, “With my personality, I won’t be able to keep my work in prostitution a secret. I think it would also be very difficult to find someone who can accept me if I just laid it bare. We have to pay the price for being in this line of work after all. It doesn’t matter if I can’t find a partner because I am used to being alone anyway.”

While online platforms have aided prostitution, technological progress has also allowed regulators to keep pace. Digital traces are like the shadows that sex workers cannot get rid of, and they contain the details of their lives.

In the internet era, all aspects of our lives from travel to spending are inseparable from our phones and apps. The data generated provide law enforcers with hard evidence during anti-vice operations. 

In the use of big data to combat prostitution, voluminous amounts of online data are collected and analysed using algorithms and computational models to identify the relevant content so that appropriate measures can be taken. By analysing the time, place and frequency of online access, the authorities can determine whether a user engages in abnormal or suspicious behaviour.

Some media outlets claimed that big data anti-vice measures were used when Chinese actor, Li Yifeng, was arrested for prostitution offences in 2022. 

Qiqi shared that while modern technology allows sex workers to better advertise and find clients, the digital records generated also puts them under constant pressure, so she is always worried about being caught.  

To avoid arousing the suspicions of law enforcers, Qiqi does not engage in idle chat with her clients on WeChat. Furthermore, she takes extra care in her choice of words when confirming the transaction location and time, and avoids mentioning any sensitive topics to prevent her account from being blocked for disseminating lewd and sexual content.  

She said, “I learned this from experience. I have had at least a dozen WeChat accounts blocked in the past few years.”

Official figures from the Chinese government indicate that 86% of its population uses mobile payments as of the end of 2023, the highest in the world. While this has brought greater convenience, it has also left illicit activities like prostitution with no hiding place.  

Qiqi commented that in today’s China, it is next to impossible for her to request for cash payments from clients. To facilitate the receipt of electronic payments, she used various means to register five WeChat accounts that she switches between. She continued, “I do this to prevent detection by big data. In my line of work, I receive large sums in my apartment every night. Wouldn’t it be very obvious if I use only one account?”

Every time Qiqi finishes a transaction, she clears her communication and transaction logs with the clients to cover her digital tracks. She hopes that this prevents the authorities from obtaining ample evidence against her if she is arrested.

Even though prostitution is illegal in China, it does not amount to criminal offences under Chinese law. Offenders can be detained for up to 15 days and given fines not exceeding 5,000 RMB. In less severe cases, the penalty is detention of up to five days or a fine not exceeding 500 RMB. 

Qiqi highlighted that even though the punishment does not seem serious, those with such records come under much greater scrutiny from the authorities and they may even face restrictions in what they can do. 

For instance, if the police computer systems detect that a person convicted of prostitution has registered as a hotel guest, the authorities would conduct a spot check even if they are on vacation and not working.

Qiqi added, “Honestly, all we can do is to get rid of the surface evidence. If the authorities were to investigate thoroughly, we won’t be able to escape or hide.” 

SYSU’s Ding Yu noted that prostitution is a complex social phenomenon that involves issues such as consumption, economic development and biological needs, as well as ethical and moral issues such as women’s dignity, personal freedom and equality.

After the Chinese Communist Party came into power in 1949, it implemented a series of measures to eradicate China’s sex industry. In fact, it views the disappearance of prostitution as the difference and demarcation between the values ​​of the old and new Chinese societies, and the revamp and victory of the People’s Republic of China.

Ding opined that in this political context, it is very difficult for prostitution to be legalised in China. But considering that regulating the sex industry requires a lot of effort and resources, and will consequently lead to economic and social problems, the government would not be too strict in controlling it.

She added, “Now that everyone is exercising caution, the authorities are more likely to close one eye instead of taking large-scale enforcement action or such so long as things do not go out of hand. The sex industry has always been in a grey area and this won’t change much.”

This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as “中国性产业走“过墙梯” 逃不过大数据之眼”.

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