Chinese family planning official caught trafficking in children
A government official in South China responsible for applying the one-child policy has been found trafficking in children.
January 4, 2013 / telegraph.co.uk
Wang Yiping is the head of the village family planning committee in Anxi county, Fujian, and a mother of four, according to the China Youth Daily newspaper.
The police said she is suspected of assisting in the illegal sale of four babies, including the recent sale of a baby boy from Yunnan province for 52,000 yuan (£5,200).
The buyer of the baby said she wanted a second child because her 19-year-old son is in poor health.
Child trafficking remains a major problem in China. Last July, Chinese police said 10,000 officers had swooped on child-trafficking gangs, freeing 181 children and making 802 arrests.
In December, 12 family planning officials in Hunan were suspected of selling orphans abroad, and were found to have "seriously violated regulations", but were later cleared of any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, a housing official in Zhengzhou, Henan, was also placed under investigation on Friday after it emerged his daughter, who is in her 20s, was the listed owner of eleven flats. The Chinese media found that the family has flipped a total of 308 flats so far, amassing 60 million yuan in profit.
China's new leader, Xi Jinping, has promised to stamp out corruption. He underlined the seriousness of his intention at a Politburo meeting to mark the end of the year, according to the state-run China Daily newspaper.
On Wednesday, the Chinese state media wrote that officials would continue to be exposed by internet sleuths, and that a new law designed to force internet users to register using their real names would not harm their freedom of speech and ability to accuse officials of wrongdoing.