Beijing police are investigating a model agency for allegedly offering escort services and blackmailing its clients after twin sisters said they had become sex workers while working for the company.

Several people, including the two company principals, have been detained, police said.

The twins, identified as Qin Yun and Qin Qing, wrote to Zhang Weigang, director of the public security bureau in Beijing's Haidian District, saying the company engaged in prostitution and they had been forced to take part.

Two company principals, identified as Hu and Meng, had nearly 100 girls, most of them juveniles, working for the Yuan Yuan Studio, the twins said.

Each had to have sex with Hu and Meng before being introduced to clients, the twins told The Beijing News. The studio was on the fifth floor of an apartment building in Haidian. Neighbors said they often witnessed young women entering or leaving.

The twins joined the agency in September after Meng persuaded them to work for the studio to realize their dreams of being film stars. Meng gave them his card which said he was vice chairman of the Beijing Model Association.

Hu promised them a bright future and training. Hu, who is in his 40s, also said he was a teacher at the Beijing Film Academy. He told the twins and other girls that they should have sex with him and Meng, and that it was an unwritten rule in the industry.

The twins alleged that some girls were brainwashed to help Hu and Meng shoot sex pictures and video footage. They also said they were made to act as escorts for wealthy clients and if they refused they would be beaten. They met more than 20 clients in two months and had sex with seven of them.

The twins said they were told to ask clients to pay their college tuition fees, from 10,000 yuan (US$1,460) to 30,000 yuan. They would hand half the money to Hu. Some girls could earn the studio 1 million yuan a year, according to another girl.

(Shanghai Daily July 10, 2008)