A deputy to the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, has said the country's criminal law should charge those who have sexual relations with underage girls with the crime of child rape, regardless of whether the girls acted voluntarily or were paid, according to a report on the website Jcrb.com.

Sun Xiaomei, a committee member of the All-China Women's Federation, said in an interview that the country should abolish the crime of "visiting an underage prostitute" and instead charge offenders with child rape, which can result in the death penalty.

Article 360 of China's criminal law stipulates that whoever pays a girl under the age of 14 for sex will be sentenced to a fixed-term imprisonment of no less than five years and concurrently have to pay a fine. The crime usually carries a maximum punishment of 15 years in prison, Sun said, adding that this was abnormally light.

Article 236 of the country's criminal law says whoever has sexual relations with a girl under the age of 14 will be deemed to have committed rape and be given a heavier punishment, including a fixed-term imprisonment of no less than 10 years, life imprisonment or death.

But Sun pointed out several defects in the charge. First, she said it did not set a minimum age limit for the victims, so that girls under the age of 10 might be categorized as criminal objects under the clause.

Second, the charge ignored the fact that girls have been exploited during prostitution. Sun cited the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to make her point. The Convention's Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography defines child prostitution as the use of a child in sexual activities for remuneration or any other form of consideration. In line with the Convention's principles, all children engaged in prostitution are presumed to be exploited. But Article 360 of China's criminal law objectively confirms that underage children involved have the autonomy to decide whether to profit from the prostitution.

Third, Sun said the crime charge constituted discrimination against underage children involved in prostitution and failed to offer equal protection to underage girls. Instead of protecting underage girls, the charge offered a way for male adult offenders to avoid heavier punishments for child rape by alleging they had given money or other valuables to the girls, so that they could be charged with "visiting an underage prostitute," she said.

Sun called on the country's judicial departments to issue an interpretation of the charges and advised the highest judicial body to launch an investigation into their implementation since the law was established.