Human Trafficking

Numerous reports of infant abductions have surfaced in the wake of the earthquake that hit China's Sichuan province on May 12. Officials, focused on resettling large numbers of people displaced by the earthquake, have not been sufficiently able to protect children, leaving some to wander around and fall into the hands of human traffickers, according to a June 2 Christian Science Monitor article. In response to these and other crimes, the Supreme People's Court issued the Circular on Completing Trial Work According to Law During the Earthquake Disaster Relief Period to Earnestly Safeguard Social Stability in the Disaster Area on May 26, which lists seven categories of crimes that courts, under the guidance of the Communist Party, must severely punish according to law.

China's first national plan to combat trafficking of women and children formalizes cooperation among agencies and establishes a national information and reporting system. The State Council's General Office issued China's National Plan of Action on Combating Trafficking in Women and Children (2008-2012) on December 13, 2007. The long-awaited plan, which was submitted for approval in July 2006, went into effect on January 1, 2008, and will be implemented over the next five years. Its overall goal is to "prevent and severely crack down" on crimes of trafficking, and provide care for trafficking victims.

Yu Youjun, the former provincial governor of Shanxi province, described as "unparalleled" the punishment of 95 local Communist Party officials for their role in a scandal involving the enslavement of more than 1,300 people, including kidnapped children and mentally challenged adults, discovered working in Shanxi brick kilns in May and June 2007. According to an October 22, 2007, China Daily article, "About 8 of the 95 officials were expelled from the Party and lost their jobs, 30 were dismissed from their posts and more than 20 officials were demoted." The head of the provincial department of labor and social security and the mayors of Linfen and Yuncheng cities were "required to make a self-criticism at an official conference."

The Qidong County People's Court in Hengyang city, Hunan province, sentenced the head of a Hengyang welfare institute (approximately equivalent to an orphanage) and other alleged traffickers on February 24 to prison terms for trafficking in infants, according to a February 24 Xinhua article. The court sentenced three traffickers to 15 years in prison and six others to terms ranging from 3 to 13 years and sentenced the director of a welfare institute in Hengdong county in Hunan province to 1 year in prison. Hengyang city government agencies dismissed or censured 22 other welfare institute employees and local Department of Civil Affairs (DoCA) officials, including the director and vice-director of the Hengyang city DoCA.

Social service organizations [fuli yuan] were involved in two child trafficking cases in November. Officials in Hunan province broke up a trafficking ring that included orphanage employees, according to a December 2 Xinhua article, and a court in Inner Mongolia sentenced traffickers who bought infants from medical clinics, according to a November 22 Xinhua article.

The Guizhou High People's Court sentenced seven people to death and 38 people to punishments ranging from five years to life in jail for child trafficking, according to an October 19 Xinhua report. The Anshun Municipal Public Security Bureau set up a special investigation team that uncovered the network responsible for abducting 61 children in Anshun and Guiyang from April to September 2003. Most of the children were boys under five, and traffickers sold to them to counties in Henan and Hebei, according to an October 20 SCMP report. Officials have recovered 25 of the victims.

Shanghai police are investigating a baby auction posted on October 16 through eBay's Chinese Web site, according to the China Daily, Associated Press, and Reuters. A spokesman for the Web site revealed that the company had deleted the posting and reported the matter to local investigators. Shanghai public security officials released no details on the investigation.