Since the reemergence of prostitution in the 1980s, government authorities have responded by first using the legal system, that is, the daily operations of courts and police. The government of China has vacillated, however, in its legal treatment of prostitutes, treating them sometimes as criminals and sometimes as behaving with misconduct. Officially, prostitution is illegal in mainland China. Venues include hotels, massage parlors, karaoke bars and beauty salons. They are almost all female, though in recent years male prostitutes have also emerged. Prostitution and related activities in mainland China appear in diverse forms, at various venues and prices, and with prostitutes coming from a range of social backgrounds. For example, a Communist Party official who was a major provincial campaigner against corruption was removed from his post and expelled from the party after he was caught in a hotel room with a prostitute.
Prostitution has also become associated with a number of problems, including organized crime, government corruption, hypocrisy, and sexually transmitted diseases. In spite of government efforts, prostitution has now developed to the extent that it comprises an industry, one that involves a great number of people and produces a considerable economic output. Since the loosening of government controls over society in the early 1980s, prostitution in mainland China not only has become more visible, but can now be found throughout both urban and rural areas.
After taking power in 1949, the Communist Party of China embarked upon a series of campaigns with the aim of eradicating prostitution from mainland China by the early 1960s.