Little Red Mansion: Details of underground sex ring spur fresh public anger in China

Sign up for the Independent Women email for the latest news, opinion and features Get the Independent Women email for free Get the Independent Women email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy China’s social media platform Weibo has been flooded with posts and articles about an organised crime group that sex-trafficked women in Shanghai. The furore centres around a six-storey building known as “the Little Red Mansion”, a private guest house owned and run by Zhao Fuqiang, who held women as modern-day slaves and forced them to have sex with clients reportedly including local government officials and business people. The case first made headlines in China in September 2020, when Zhao and 37 other defendants, including employees of the mansion as well as local officials, were charged with leading and participating in organised crime, rape, prostitution, bribery, and several other crimes, according to the Central News Agency in Taiwan. More than a year after the sentences were announced, articles such as these attracted more than 600 million views on Weibo within days, yet they were quickly censored and removed from the social media platform, as well as some comments from users “The state-run media’s attitude makes me so disappointed,” wrote one netizen.