A Tale of Tourists, Sex and Outrage

In a case that has drawn wide attention from Chinese officials and anti-Japanese anger in China’s Internet chat rooms, authorities said Monday they were investigating reports that a hotel was overrun for a few days earlier this month by hundreds of Japanese tourists and Chinese prostitutes.

Many details of the incident, which reportedly ended Sept. 18 -- the anniversary of a 1931 attack that marked the beginning of Japan’s brutal occupation of China -- remain unclear. Investigators have closed the convention hotel in southern China where it is alleged to have taken place, and authorities have not released the names of any of the small number of people who have been detained.

But Chinese officials were taking it seriously enough that they felt compelled to issue a statement about it.

Kong Quan, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, called it “an extremely odious criminal case.”

“Foreigners who visit China must obey the law,” Kong said in the statement. “We hope the Japanese government will improve education of its citizens in this regard.”

Japan’s occupation of China continued through World War II and remains a source of bitterness for many Chinese, even as the two countries have developed the two biggest economies in Asia and have become major trading partners. Chinese officials routinely praise their economic relationship but also periodically suggest that Japan has failed to fully atone for its past actions.

Although “sex tours” in China by Japanese men are nothing new, the alleged sex spree in the southern city of Zhuhai is drawing both official attention and public anger.

Prostitution is illegal but nonetheless widespread in many big Chinese cities.

The state-run, English-language China Daily, calling the Zhuhai incident a “massive sex scandal,” said that about 400 Japanese men, ranging in age from 16 to 37, had come to the Zhuhai International Conference Center Hotel and had sex with hundreds of local prostitutes. They said police were conducting a “full investigation,” detaining suspects and gathering other evidence, which could include footage from hotel surveillance cameras.

Zhuhai is part of a “special economic zone” near Hong Kong and Macao, set up to attract foreign investment.

The China Daily report described the Japanese tourists and Chinese prostitutes as cavorting throughout the large hotel. It also quoted a manager of the hotel as saying the tourists attempted to raise a Japanese flag in the lobby but that the hotel would not allow them to do so. Several other newspapers also reported details of the incident. None of them was confirmed independently.

The Japanese Embassy in Beijing said it was looking into the matter but would have no further comment Monday.

China’s Web sites, the domain of younger, urban residents -- and one of the freest vehicles for popular expression -- lighted up with anger over the reports.

More than 62,000 messages, most anti-Japanese, had been posted on the popular sohu.com by late Monday. A posting on the Communist Party’s People’s Daily Web site was signed with the name Gao Zhichun and read in part: “This ugly spectacle is a shameless display by Japanese toward the history of their invasion.” Another urged a boycott of all Japanese goods.