Sexual assaults on men in China will be treated as a crime punishable with minimum five years in jail as an amendment to the criminal law came into effect on Sunday amid an increase in such cases in the country.
The sexual assault of men was not previously listed as an offence under Chinese law. It is now a crime after an amendment to the Criminal law that took effect today, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The amendment, adopted by the top legislature in August, stipulates that indecent assault on others, men or women, now carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison.
In the former law, the clause “others” was “women,” the report said. The amendment was carried out amid increasing sexual attacks on men by men. Until now, it was difficult to file cases involving male sexual assault.
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 jailed for 12 months.
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.
In addition, the revised law repealed the crime of sex with underage prostitutes and reclassified it as rape. Under the previous law, people who have sex with prostitutes less than 14 years old face a maximum of 15 years in prison, while those convicted of raping a child may face the death sentence.
Recent studies have shown gay and lesbian culture is fast spreading in China with growing acceptance as a survey pointed to positive view of it among majority of people.
Fifty-nine percent of 2,400 residents interviewed in a survey said that society should accept homosexuals while 21% of respondents know gay people, state-run Global Times reported on Sunday.
Early this year, the father of a Chinese gay man has written to 1000 legislators asking them to initiate moves to bring about a law legalising homosexual marriage during the parliament session beginning from Monday.