By Grace Li
HONG KONG, May 14 (Reuters) - China should remove criminal and admininstrative penalties against sex workers which often lead to serious police abuses, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Tuesday.
The abuses include torture, beatings, physical assaults, fines and arbitrary detentions of up to two years, as well as a failure to investigate crimes against sex workers by clients, bosses and state agents, according to the report.
Prostitution is not permitted under Chinese law, although the industry has boomed since the country launched economic reforms in 1978.
Human Rights Watch estimates that between four and six million people are engaged in sex work in China, the overwhelming majority of them women.
Sex workers are also subjected to forced HIV testing, privacy infringements and mistreatment by health officials, the report found.
"In practice, sex workers are treated as if they have no rights simply because they are sex workers," said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch.
Police corruption is common in China, where a lack of rule of law sometimes gives them almost unrestricted power.
President Xi Jinping, who oversees the Central Military Commission, has made fighting graft a central theme since assuming the top job in the ruling Communist Party in November.
In January, Xi said anti-corruption efforts should target both low-ranking "flies" and powerful "tigers". (Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Ron Popeski)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
