Beijing police have launched a series of raids on gay saunas, clubs, and park cruising spots in what looks like a concerted effort to clean up the city ahead of the summer Olympics, according to an AIDS activist.
AIDS activist Wan Yanhai was fired in 1994 from was fired from a Health Ministry job in 1994 after publicly calling for AIDS education and gay rights. In 2002, he was detained for a month on charges of leaking an internal government report on the blood-selling schemes in Henan Province where several hundred thousand people are believed to have contracted HIV through a government-sponsored blood collection program and again in 2006 for accusing government officials of failing to act as the disease continues to spread.
"All the prominent gay cruising areas were raided," says Wan. "One bathhouse is still closed and some people are still in detention; maybe less than 10, but we don't know how many."
He said that on March 17 some 30 policemen, some of them in "special forces" uniforms, descended on Dandong Park near Tiananmen Square. The park is the capital's most famous gay cruising spot. They pulled in more than 40 people, checked their identity papers, took their photos and pulled those without ID in for further questioning including an outreach worker with Aizhixing.
"We talked with one of the boys arrested," says Wan. "He said police asked him if he was a money boy, he said no, and warned him that they had his details on file, that it was Olympics year and that it was foolish for him to go to the park and he shouldn't go back there."
Three days later, police raided Oasis, a well-known gay sauna in the centre of the city. They detained 74 people, including staff, masseurs and clients, said Wan.
Most of the people were held for 30 hours - some up to four days - asked repeatedly were they sex workers and were only released after they paid a "fine" of between 200 (US$28) and 2,000 yuan. The police threatened to inform their families if they didn't pay the fine, which appeared to depend on how much money the detainee had on him at the time. "This is similar to blackmail," accused Wan.
Several other raids on parks and saunas have also taken place while earlier in March, Destination, the main gay club, was hit by police on a busy Saturday night. The club reopened three days later.
While the raids in March appear to be targeting sex workers more worrying is the harassment of a prominent lesbian activist in her own home.
Police, both plainclothes and uniformed, came to her house in January and then again in March, asked to see her identity papers, questioned her about her job, demanded a photograph and queried her about her live-in girlfriend.
"I guess it was naïve to give them a picture but I wasn't sure what was going on at the time," said the lesbian activist who prefers not to be named. "I've been living her for three years and have never had a problem before."
The second police raid came a day after she had sent out a press release for an event to mark the collection of signatures on a petition calling for the legalisation of same-sex marriage in China.
Wan said he thinks it's not just directed at Beijing's gays but more the result of a directive to clean up the city before the Olympics specifically targeting sex workers. But "we should clearly tell the Chinese government that this situation is not acceptable and you have to respect human rights before the Olympics and not just to clean up the city to ensure security."