Responses to prostitution in China offer an opportunity to study the uses of law and law enforcement as aspects of morality inculcation, social control, social change, and public health policy. This is reinforced by the educative-rehabilitative role that the formal and informal law has historically played in Chinese society. Official recidivism rates for female prostitutes are amazingly low; it is claimed that only 20 percent of reeducated women become involved in subsequent criminal activity, with only 7 percent returning to prostitution. The author notes that education related to the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases could easily be lost in these figures. Secondly, legitimate changes in the prostitute could be counteracted by the anomic condition of social values in the nation, particularly the resurgence of women's services as a commodity. A continued growth in prostitution could precipitate further shifts from the traditional rehabilitative approach to one that attempts to exact control through a punitive mode. 5 notes and 54 references