Chinese porn king jailed for life

Stiff penalty as Chinese authorities take firm stand against porn.

The Chinese authorities have sentenced the man behind the county's largest pornographic Web portal to life in prison.

Chen Hui, 28, set up Qingseliuyuetian, or 'pornographic summer', in 2004 and it quickly grew to become the largest pornographic website in the country, with over 600,000 members paying around US$30 for access.

Eight other people behind the site were sentenced to between 13 months and 10 years.

The authorities froze the assets of the site last year but only recovered around US$25,000. More funds are thought to be hidden overseas.

There were over nine million pornographic images and articles on the website and it had received more than 11 million hits.

Hui kept one step ahead of the authorities by constantly changing his company's name and hiring servers in the US to host his site.

Pornography was strictly forbidden under Chairman Mao but the authorities have relaxed their stance slightly in recent years. However, in July a country-wide crackdown was announced against pornographers and pirates.

One man was recently jailed for 12 years for selling pornographic goods, while another convicted of selling pornographic DVDs and VCDs was jailed for five years and six months with a fine of US$1,250.