Sexual offenses against minors have been under-reported in the past. But there have been multiple headline-grabbing incidents over recent months of abuse by teachers or public officials.
An official in central China's Henan province was executed in June for raping 11 under-age girls. On June 25th, a school principal was sentenced to 18 years in jail for raping and molesting girls in Qianshan County in eastern Anhui Province.
And in May, a primary school headmaster and a government employee in the city of Wanning in south China's Hainan Province were detained by police for allegedly sexually assaulting six female students.