Apparently Wife Swapping is Illegal in China

Published on April 13, 2010 by JonT | This story has been viewed 973 views

The recent arrests of wife swappers in Guangzhou have stirred up a hornets’ nest in China. Chinese netizens are debating this controversial topic to no end. On one end, the conservatives (government) are urging stricter laws and enforcement, stating that this is a sinful behavior and that this type of sexual indulgence violates moral ethics as well as the law. On the other end, are the liberals urging to abolish this senseless law, stating that they are all consenting adults and that they are not hurting anyone.

Specifically, the law that they were charged with is a 1997 amended criminal law called “group licentiousness” further extrapolated as a group being of any gathering of persons more than two in an act of immoderate indulgence of sexual conduct. So that means in China, Ménage à trois can land you in prison for five years which is the maximum sentence under normal circumstances, per person. That’s important to know for anyone planning an orgy and that the infraction is not compounded. Then again 20 years ago this could have carried the death sentence, China has certainly come a long way.

The recent surge of swinging websites and wife swapping forums has brought China closer to a revolution (sexual that is) not seen since the Cultural Revolution. Any governmental social sexual repression will certainly be met with extremes and then the pendulum will fall unless officials are not careful dishing out sentences. If you calculate the sheer number of websites, meetings and infractions vs. the man power in which to police and enforce this law, it will be more costly and virtually impossible to contain.

However, just as prostitution is illegal in China, the police have come up with an ingenious way to keep up appearances of doing their job and enforcing this law. There is essentially a scheduled crackdown on certain times of the year, just before Chinese Lunar New Year and just before the October 1st National Day holidays. There are also un-scheduled crackdowns from time to time strictly to enforce the need of protectionism, because if you’re not one of the patrons or contributors of protectionism, then you wouldn’t be warned in advance and be caught off guard. The rest of the time, as long as you confine your caveat to conventional activities, you won’t have any problems.

By JonT

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Filed under: Shenzhen