The sexual assault of men, which was not previously listed as an offense under Chinese law, is now a crime after an amendment to the Criminal Law took effect.
Indecent or sexual assault on others, men or women, now carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison.
In the former law, the clause “others” meant only “women”. The amendment was passed by the legislature in August.
Article 236 of the Criminal Law of China says: “Whoever rapes a woman by violence, coercion or any other means shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than 10 years. Whoever has sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 14 shall be deemed to have committed rape and shall be given a heavier punishment.
It was difficult to file cases involving male sexual assault as the law did not recognise it as a crime.
The revised law has also repealed sex with underage prostitutes as the crime and reclassified it as rape.
As under the previous law, people face a maximum of 15 years in prison for sex with prostitutes less than 14 years old, and those convicted of raping a child may be sentenced to death sentence.
BACKGROUND
In 2010, a security guard sexually abused his male colleague in the employee dormitory. Instead of being charged with sexual assault, the offender was convicted on the lesser charge of intentional injury and was sentenced to 12 months in prison.
In a case in Luzhou of Sichuan province last year, a man was robbed and raped by another man. The attacker was never charged for sexual assault, according to media reports.
