China: Beauty prevails at Auto Shanghai 2015 despite ban on scantily-clad models

Following a ban on provocative models, car manufactuers adorned their vehicles at the 16th International Automobile & Manufacturing Technology Exhibition (Auto Shanghai 2015) with conservatively dressed young women, Monday. The show's decision comes following Chinese President Xi Jinping's increasing efforts to crack down on prostitution, online pornography and other forms of racy or improper programming on television. According to the show's organisers, the focus should be on the automobiles. The young women, the organisers believe, should have a more business-like appearance, carrying tablets and assisting visitors with details on the vehicles. Auto Shanghai is one of the world's leading trade fairs for automobiles. Taking place every two years since 1985, the show features thousands of exhibitions from national and international manufacturers. It will run until April 29. Annual automobile sales halved from 13.9 in 2013 to 6.9 percent in 2014. Despite this, around 23.49 million cars were sold in China in 2014, making the country the world's biggest producer and consumer of automobiles.