HIV prevalence in China is low in the general population but higher among certain key affected populations, including sex workers. Providing and purchasing sexual services are criminal offenses.
Police engage in humiliating and repressive practices against sex workers. Whereas in some countries, sex worker collectives have helped empower sex workers to stand up to the police and safeguard their use of condoms, restrictions on civil society in China make such a strategy impossible.
Removing sex work and related activities as offenses under the law in China, however politically difficult it might be, would ease this situation. Short of that, improving the coordination among and strategic harmony of public health and police roles and authorities would be useful.
Sex work is prohibited under administrative law, and some activities associated with sex work are criminal offenses, as described in more detail below. While Chinese authorities continue to crack down on sex work, the government has set up policies and programs to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV, including the extensive rollout of condom and HIV testing programs. Undermining the public health outcomes of condom programs, police often search for and confiscate condoms from sex workers and use condoms as evidence of sex work in order to detain or punish sex workers.
Mechanisms have been established from the central to local levels to coordinate and mobilize relevant departments, including police and security officials, in support of HIV prevention, but these mechanisms have failed to work. The government has also emphasized the importance of involving public security in the HIV response, including supporting the promotion of condoms in entertainment venues.
