Zero tolerance

Wang Lequan, deputy secretary of the political and legislative affairs commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committees, vowed on August 31 that the government would adopt a "zero tolerance" policy toward the sex trade, gambling and drugs.

Beijing police also cracked down on shady businesses prior to the 2008 Olympic Games, the Southern Weekend reported earlier.

Two female Mongolian students who studied in Beijing ran a sex business before they were busted during the operation, according to the report.

Liu Wenyan, a lawyer with the All-China Women's Federation, said that foreign prostitutes are usually brought into China by international criminal gangs that recruit women abroad and then sell them to the other agents after they arrive in China, the report said.

Most enter China with a tourist or student visa but many come under the guise of being a member of an art performance troupe, Liu said.

Foreign prostitutes in China are often citizens of Russia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and some eastern European countries, the International Herald Leader, a newspaper run by Xinhua, reported earlier.

There are about 6,000 Russian women working in the sex industry in China, the report said.

Liu Wenyan said officials usually tackle the problem by issuing a warning to the women, reporting them to their country's embassies, and expelling them out of China rather than fining or detaining them.