Chinese Child Traffickers Detained

Chinese officials announced yesterday that eight people have been arrested on charges of child trafficking. The suspects were detained in the eastern part of the country’s Fujian province.

One group, a man and three women, were intercepted at a road block. It is suspected that they were en route to sell two baby girls. These suspects confessed that they had bought the girls at the price of about US$ 1 471. They planned to act as intermediaries and sell them for US$2 197 each. The rest of the suspects were detained in the last 3 months.

So far, this particular group is known to have trafficked 12 children across the country. Police have only been able to rescue five. Most of the children were bought from the parents of poor families living in rural areas. In China, the cultural characteristic that it is the responsibility of the man to care for parents in their old age is one of the main reasons that boys are preferred to girls. China’s One Child Policy (instituted in 1979) stipulates that urban families are only allowed one child, while rural families may be allowed two (usually if the first is a girl).

The combination of these factors has meant that China suffers high rates of female infanticide, sex-selective abortion, as well as widespread abandonment and human trafficking of the girl-child.

China is a source, transit and destination country for child traffickers. Trafficking in girls and women occurs frequently throughout the rest of Southeast Asia, largely due to rising urban incomes and the expansion of the commercial sex industry. Many Chinese girls may be bound for prostitution rings in Cambodia, Thailand, or elsewhere in the region.

However, demographic factors have also meant that trafficking happens extensively within China’s borders. The country’s sex ratio (males: females) has been skewed from what is considered natural because of the aforementioned causes that families use to rid themselves of female children.  Today, there are substantially more men than women in the country. The consequence of this is that millions of Chinese men will be unable to find a wife in the coming years. In anticipation of this danger, some families have chosen to purchase a wife for their sons during infancy and raise her as his betrothed. 

Other reasons girls may be trafficked include prostitution within China, illegal adoption, domestic labour, beauty shop or bath house labour and begging. 
The US Department of State estimates that within China, there are roughly 10 000 - 20 000 cases of child trafficking each year. 90% of all cases of human trafficking in the country involve women and children only, says the International Labour Organization.

The Chinese government, in cooperation with charities and civil society organizations, has been addressing the challenges of human trafficking in recent years in order to better protect children. So far, they have arrested at least 25 000 traffickers such as the eight captured recently, and have rescued more than 35 000 victims