A hearing has been scheduled over allegations that hundreds of Japanese businessmen frolicked with prostitutes at a hotel in southern China during a sensitive wartime anniversary, state media reported yesterday.
The Zhuhai Intermediate People's Court will take testimony from hotel managers, nightclub bosses, prostitutes and employees of the Japanese company allegedly involved in the incident, the China Daily newspaper and other media reported.
The report did not give a date for the hearing, but said it could last several days.
Defendants could face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty should it go to trial, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified court official. Telephone calls went unanswered at the court yesterday.
The hearing marks authorities' latest attempt to respond to public outrage over the reported sex romp, word of which spread like wildfire over the Internet.
China's Foreign Ministry has lodged official complaints with the Japanese Embassy and demanded that Japanese citizens respect Chinese laws while they are inside the country.
Prostitution is technically illegal in China, although the sex industry is rampant in much of the country.
According to reports of the Sept. 16 to Sept. 18 incident, about 400 Japanese businessmen attended a banquet with some 500 Chinese hostesses at Zhuhai's ritzy Yuehai Hotel, then continued the party at the five-star Zhuhai International Conference Center Hotel. Eyewitnesses said the businessmen cavorted with their dates in the halls and elevators and attempted to raise a Japanese flag in the lobby.
Both hotels have since been closed by authorities in Zhuhai, a major export-manufacturing center bordering Hong Kong that has long enjoyed a reputation for its freewheeling nightlife.
Sept. 18 marks the anniversary of an attack by Japanese forces in 1931 that China regards as the start of Japan's brutal World War II invasion and occupation.
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