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Xi Jinping

China bans sexy female models from Shanghai auto show

Chris Woodyard
USA TODAY
Taiwanese dancers introduce a new car from Luxgen, a joint venture between state-owned Dongfeng Motor Co. and Yukon, a Taiwanese partner in Shanghai

There are many sexy models at the Shanghai Auto Show now underway, but they are new cars clad in sheet metal -- not attractive women in skimpy outfits.

Models in sexy and barely-there costumes, common at many auto shows around the world, have been banned in Shanghai this year, part of a morality crackdown by President Xi Jinping.

Instead, the Associated Press reports that women showing off cars this year fall more under the cute, rather than sexy, heading -- "dancers and fresh-faced young women holding tablet computers."

The government lately has been trying to control prostitution, online pornography and racy TV programming. The change in the policy regarding female models at the big auto show was announced in February.

Xi, according to profile of him in The New Yorkerthis month, is repulsed by excesses, whether it's commercialization and corruption or "moral evils" like drugs and prostitution.

As the feminist movement progressed, auto-show models were in strong retreat in the U.S. Rarely were they seen. But lately they have made a comeback. They are sometimes called derisively called "booth babes," women and sometimes men who stand next to cars and pose for photos. And they have been common in foreign shows, like in Tokyo and Europe.

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