21 caught in forced prostitution raid

BEIJING - A total of 21 suspects were caught by police from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan in a joint raid against forced prostitution, the Ministry of Public Security said Wednesday.

The suspects were part of a criminal ring that abducted women from the Chinese mainland, brought them to Taiwan and forced them into prostitution, the ministry said in a statement.

Of the suspects, 19 are from Taiwan and two are from the Chinese mainland, it says. The suspects began coercing women from the mainland of China into prostitution in November 2012, according to police.

Police in East China's Fujian province and their counterparts across the Taiwan Strait completed the raid on Tuesday. Six victims were rescued in the operation.

The joint operation marked another successful cooperative police effort in fighting human trafficking across the Taiwan Strait since a mutual judicial assistance mechanism to fight cross-Straits crimes was established in April 2009, a ministry spokesperson said.