Wang Jie, who personifies greed and lust, allegedly collected more than 7 million yuan ($1.1 million) in donations in nine years through his illegal private website that claimed to help children from poor families in Longlin county, South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. A big chunk of the donations went into Wang's pocket, and he used it as a tool to force teenage girl victims into sex trade.

According to Wang's confession, he molested dozens of girls and all of them were minors, some just more than 10 years old. Worse, he "exchanged" the girls he was supposed to help with some rich men to get more so-called conditional financial aid.

Taking advantage of the girls from poor families, Wang pushed them into prostitution. The financial assistance he got from his rich clients in "exchange" for the poor girls, instead of helping the victims and their families, became the source of their nightmare. Some of the teenage girls had to drop out of school after becoming pregnant due to the sexual assaults while some left their hometowns with lifelong physical and mental wounds, which they could not even speak of because of shame.

Now that Wang's devilry has been exposed, the long arm of the law will reach all those who sexually abused the victims in cahoots with Wang. But the question is: How could an unregistered website illegally raising funds escape supervision and continue collecting donations for nine years without being investigated?

Poverty and the fact that legal student assistance funds fail to reach impoverished areas like Longlin are the main reasons behind such tragedies. Families in such areas are in desperate need of financial aid to ensure their children continue their education.

Indeed, poverty is the harsh reality that has deprived these victims and their families of the strength and courage to resist the temptation of seeking help from dubious organizations like the one run by Wang. It is their poverty and desperation that make such people vulnerable to exploitation, and embolden crooks like Wang to act with impunity in places like Longlin.

Law and supervision both gave way to the unscrupulous charity organization in Longlin, and surprisingly even the local media sang paeans for Wang's charity work. Using these to his advantage, Wang reduced charity to a sex racket. So, aside from poverty, lack of regulation and supervision heaved more sufferings on these already distressed people.

Wang's remark that "money makes the mare move" shows he knew the importance of money for the poor and used it to plug the legal loopholes to exploit the girls and their families. Wang's criminal deeds have exposed a vicious circle that comprises not only exploitation of the poor, but also violation of the law. The loopholes in charity management in some areas of China have given rise to such rackets that target poor, innocent girls.

The rich people who "bought sex" under the guise of helping poor girls are equally to blame for the sordid affair and, thus, deserve strict punishments.

However, departments that turned a blind eye to Wang's shameful activities or refrained from taking action against him, too, cannot escape responsibility. To regain some of the public trust they have lost, they should immediately swing into action to ensure such cases do not recur.

The article was first published in Qianjiang Evening News.