China trial over Japanese tourist orgy
Fourteen people are on trial in China for organizing an orgy between 400 Japanese tourists and 500 local prostitutes. The three-day sex party took place in September at a hotel in Zhuhai, "ending on September 18 — the anniversary of the 1931 Mukden Incident, when Japanese forces attacked a city in the north-east of China."
China Daily reports that the defendants include "a manager of the hotel where the incident occurred, night club bosses, pimps, prostitutes and the employees of a local Japanese-funded tour company." This article also notes that "the prostitutes earned between 800 yuan (US$96) and 1,800 yuan (US$216) a night."
The orgy has sparked a massive cultural snit in China. According to Japanese news service Mainichi, "The hearings are grabbing public attention in both China and Japan, as the allegations that Japanese tourists used the service of many Chinese prostitutes sparked anti-Japanese sentiment among Chinese people." The Chinese state-run newspaper People Daily ran an editorial in September entitled Japanese orgy hurts feelings of Chinese.
