JINAN, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese police have arrested two more men in a nationwide crackdown on the distribution of sexually explicit photos featuring Hong Kong entertainer Edison Chen, police in east China's Shandong Province said on Sunday.

Hong Kong police have been hunting for the first releaser of the photos and had made several arrests.

At least 13 people have been arrested on the Chinese mainland in connection with the photos. Chinese law prohibits the production, duplication, selling or circulation of pornographic products even without the purpose of making profit. Offenders can face detention of up to 15 days.

Ten people who allegedly produced, sold or bought computer discs of the photos were arrested in the southern city of Shenzhen in February, when police confiscated about 250 discs and six computers used to produce the discs.

An 11th person, surnamed Yu, was detained for 10 days in Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province, on Feb. 22. He was found to have downloaded 260 photos on his computer and uploaded the photos to the album of his QQ space to attract other Internet users.

On Saturday, police in the central China province of Hunan sentenced two men to five days detention for disseminating the explicit photos on the Internet.

Last month, the Chinese Internet search engine Baidu.com was asked by a Beijing Internet self-discipline organization to make a public apology for allowing the circulation of the photos.

A 25-year-old man surnamed Wei was arrested on Feb. 12 for allegedly uploading 1,174 shots featuring Chen with female celebrities on to a chat room of the instant messenger QQ.com for downloads, according to the Internet supervision police brigade in Zibo City.

Wei allegedly provided links to the chat room at cbbn.bbs, a popular on-line forum, to canvas interest. Wei was detained and is awaiting trial.

The Zibo police said Wei confessed that he obtained the photos from another person outside Shandong when the pictures started to leak out.

The other man, surnamed Li, was given a ten-day detention and fined 3,000 yuan (420 U.S. dollars) on Feb. 15 for uploading more than 180 copies of the photos to his personal space at QQ.com.

Police in Tai'an, in Shandong, said Li, 21, provided links and codes to access the photos through his web page to solicit visits to increase its popularity.

The photos, reportedly copied by a computer repair shop assistant from a faulty laptop believed to belong to Chen, began to appear on the Internet from Jan. 27.

On Feb. 21, Chen made a public apology and announced that he would quit the Hong Kong entertainment industry. He admitted most of the photos were taken by him. "These photos were very private and have not been shown to people and were never intended to be shown to anyone."

BEIJING, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Netizens from about 40 websites have said they will not look at or pass on the hundreds of pornographic star photos which began circulating on the Internet during the Spring Festival and which have been dubbed Pornogate.

"Recently some racy photos of a Hong Kong singer-actor together with several actresses spread quickly on the Internet. They were viewed and downloaded by many netizens; they are beyond the acceptable limits of morality," read a declaration on the portal website Sohu.com.

"Hereby we call on each responsible netizen to 'end Pornogate' by deleting those photos, not downloading and not forwarding, so as to create a healthy online environment for children," said the declaration.

Dozens of other websites including Sina.com, Baidu.com, QQ.com, mediachina.net posted similar declarations. On Sina alone, about 2,000 netizens supported a posting from a netizen nicknamed Sanxia.

The Public Security Ministry launched a campaign from this January to September to clear porn from the Internet.

The Internet News and Information Review Council in Beijing on Monday asked China's major search website Baidu.com to make a public apology for its delayed reaction in blocking access to the photos.

"'Key-words searching' and 'Tieba', a picture-sharing section of Baidu.com, became a platform to show and spread the obscene pictures and Baidu failed to block the photos after other Beijing-based websites had taken actions against the pictures' spreading," said a statement issued by the council. One posting on the Tieba section of the Baidu website had attracted more than 500,000 clicks.

The incident aroused media frenzy from the end of January onwards, when the sex photos of Canadian-born rap singer and actor Edison Chen and starlet Gillian Chung were allegedly stolen from a faulty computer. They then spread rapidly on the Internet.

More celebrities were soon dragged into the scandal, including actress Cecilia Cheung, Hollywood actress Maggie Q and former actress Bobo Chan.

Hong Kong police made high-profile arrests of at least six suspects.

Edison Chen apologized in a video statement on Feb. 4, followed by Gillian Chung on Feb. 11, admitting that she had been "very naive and very silly".

The efforts, however, didn't seem to bring an end to the scandal.

Some people showed tolerance to the spreading the photos. "Such photos would be spread wherever they appear in the world. They could shoot the photos, why couldn't we spread them," said a netizen nicknamed Little Shrimp.

But Li Yinhe, a renowned sociologist and a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, expressed her worry. "Many people nowadays have the hobby of prying into others' privacy. We need to reflect on such vulgar and unhealthy interests."

China has the second largest population of internet users in the world -- 210 million by the end of 2007, among whom those aged between 18 and 24 accounted for 31.8 percent of the total and the group from 25 to 30 made up 18.1 percent.

A survey by the Shanghai University showed that 85 percent of the more than 100 primary school teachers polled and 73.4 percent of the 200 parents expressed anxiety about porn and violence on the Internet, but 56.8 percent of the teachers and 29.2 percent of the parents felt helpless in tackling the problem.

When "too obscene, too violent" has become the first catch phrase in the year 2008 in China, "the Pornogate scandal rings a warning bell for the Internet supervision department to beef up supervision," said a commentary on the southcn.com, "eliminating the obscene pictures is just the first step, and it will take a long time to create a healthy and harmonious online environment."

An official with the Beijing Qingdian Wanwei Telecommunication and Technology Co., Ltd was nabbed on Monday with three of his underling for uploading 28 obscene pictures last year, with a click rate of 250,000, according to a report of the Beijing Youth Daily.

"Because of the high click rate, they are likely to face more than ten years' jail," said the report.

The incident was also seen as a lesson for star-crazy youngsters.

Sports column writer Dong Lu posted an article on his blog, saying that "what fans of the stars should do is to smash their computers and common people, the idols".

"Thanks to Edison Chen and the scandal, although some actresses were hurt, they gave the society a valuable lesson...the fans should wake up and live their own lives."

His view was shared by a netizen nicknamed Haikuotiankong. "We should take this opportunity to educate our young people to see the stars in a correct way rather than deify and worship them blindly," he said. "those who died in the battle against snow disaster are our real idol.

Sex Photo - Make Hong Kong Hot in cyber space!!

A series of Hong Kong-oriented nude photo scandals involving numerous celebrities there heated up the Internet news here last week. The scandal was the third most viewed news item on Naver's most searched list last week.
On Jan. 30, local media reported several photographs purportedly showing sexual relations between Hong Kong actor Chen Kwoon Hei, 29, more widely known by his English name Edison Chen, and pop singer Gillian Chung, 28, were leaked to the Internet and rapidly reproduced throughout cyber space.
According to Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper, the pictures were copied from the actor's faulty computer last year when he took it in for servicing.
``A person in the shop found hidden in files in Chen's computer, confidential nude pictures of naked female stars, which were then secretly copied,'' Ming Pao reported, quoting an anonymous source.
At first the two entertainers denied the allegation, saying, ``They are doctored photographs.''
Despite their denial, hundreds of explicit pictures were posted online, cornering the actor and starlets he appeared with.
According to Hong Kong police, a total of nine female celebrities including several world-class actresses such as Cecilia Cheung, Gillian Chung and Bobo Chan had sexual relations with the actor.
The computer shop was subsequently raided by police in a widening investigation across the territory, which has led to eight arrests for infringing the obscene material law, and the seizure of hundreds of other explicit images, many unpublished.
Following the leakage, actress Cecilia Cheung and husband Nicholas Tse now live separately and Bobo Chan broke off an engagement with her fiance. Gillian Chung reportedly attempted suicide but failed.
According to Hong Kong's Apple Daily, the disgraced actor Edison Chen who is now staying in Boston with his girlfriend will return to Hong Kong on Sunday to be questioned by police.
A major suspect who was arrested on suspicion of spreading the nude photos online was released recently, according to Apple Daily on Feb. 16.

Gillian Chung -I was very naive and silly in the past, but I have grown up now

Canto pop singer Gillian Chung Yan-tung, one of the women in the recent celebrity sex photo scandal, broke her silence briefly on February 11th amid a gathering with her fans.
Chung said she regretted the impact that the incident has caused to society as a whole.
"I admit that I was very naive and silly in the past, but I have grown up now," Chung made the speech in the company of Charlene Choi Cheuk-yin, her singing partner in the pop duo "Twins".
"I want to thank my company, family and friends for their concern and support," Chung said.
She did not answer any media questions.
Chung is the second artist involved in the scandal to make a public statement over the incident. Edison Chen Kwoon-hei apologized for the incident through a video last Monday.
"I will continue to work and face my life in a positive manner," she said.
Her fans cheered after she finished the one-minute speech.
One of them said she has never seen the photos, while another said she would not leave the fan club.
Over the internet, however, Chung's speech has sparked frenzied discussion.
"The audiences are all naive too, we are deceived," said dd88_555, an online user, on the mainland forum "Tianya".

What Other's Said?
Another online user melon860411 said, "I used to love Chung, but now I am very disappointed."
Meanwhile, some expressed their support for the 27-year-old artist.

"Please don't focus on the scandal only. They (the celebrities) are also ordinary people. We should tolerate and help them resume normal life," Freeblueworld said.

"They are too young to understand this incident," she said. Ho's 10-year-old child never saw the photos.

Ho added while no single person should be held responsible for the incident, artists should pay more attention to their behavior.

Despite the arrest of the man who allegedly uploaded the photos last Monday, more photos were uploaded onto the internet. Seven females were identified, including Chen's girlfriend Vincy Yeung.

Mani Fok, manager of Chung
Mani Fok, manager of Chung, said the company Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG) and Chung would not respond to the incident in the future.
EEG initially claimed in a statement that the images featuring Chung were doctored.
The ninth arrest in relation to the posting of the photos has recently been made. The suspect, a 24-year-old man, was apprehended in Kowloon at 8:00am on Sunday. He was charged last night with distributing erotic photographs on the web and will appear in Kwun Tong Magistracy today

Gillian Chung Biography

Gillian Chung is a Hong Kong pop singer and actress. She resides in the affluent Midlevel district in Hong Kong with her younger sister. Chung is a graduate of the Kowloon True Light Middle School and attended RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. While at RMIT, she also worked as a part-time model. She did not finish her studies in RMIT.

In 2001, Chung was approached by Emperor Entertainment Group to form a singing group, Twins, with Charlene Choi, to whom she is not actually related.

Chung made her film debut in U Man which was released in 2002 and has since proven her acting skills in a number of films like Beyond Our Ken which has earned her critical acclaim, being nominated as 'Best Actress' in the Gam Zhi Ging Awards. Outdoing herself in every martial arts sequence, Chung has established herself as the up and coming action star.

In the film Beyond Our Ken released in 2004, Chung played as Chan Wai Ching, a spurned girlfriend of the eponymous Ken. The film managed a box office taking of HK$ 3,886,355 and it has its World Premiere in Tokyo International Film Festival and Gillian's most recent film, which was in January of 2006, Gillian's '49 Days' exceeded the HK $10 million mark, earning a spot in one of Hong Kong's best box office films for the year 2006.

Need more picture??? Please go to my Galery