Trafficking Tragedies: China UPDATED
Trafficking in China has had a lot of recent media coverage. Entangled in all the forms of trafficking is adoption trafficking. Some recent statistics can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/2auhcvq .
The laws are not comprehensive according to this site. “The P.R.C. has not adopted a comprehensive law to criminalize all forms of human trafficking; however it has several laws that can be used to prosecute traffickers.”
Known Trafficking –The Logs
The Research China Blog published a public post on April 6, 2010 discussing logs that were part of the Qidong Police Bureau investigation. See http://tinyurl.com/4ab6fll .
There are “transcriptions of two logs that originated from the Changning orphanage, and which were part of the Qidong Police Bureau’s investigation of the Changning trafficking cases from 2003 and 2005. The first log, which we will call the “trafficking” log since it has an almost complete listing of the finders that brought the children to the Changning orphanage, covers between January 2002 and July 2003, and contains records of 222 children. This log terminates in mid-2003 when the Changning came under investigation for trafficking in August 2003.
The second log, which we will call the Changning “adoption” logs (because it has an almost complete listing of the adoption destination of each child), contains information on 244 children. It covers the period of August 2002 through October 2005. Nineteen children are common to both logs.”
Another public post on May 3, 2010 http://tinyurl.com/4d5zgo8 discusses Hengdong Orphanage Trafficking Logs.
Trafficking by the Numbers
From the October 8, 2010 post, article courtesy of Global Times “There is no official number of total trafficked children in China.
According to Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV, about 200,000 children go missing in China each year, and more than 600,000 cases have not been solved yet.”
The number of cases and traffickers is astounding! “During a 16-month anti-trafficking campaign that began in April 2009, police had rescued 5,896 kidnapped children and 10,621 women, according to the Ministry of Public Security. Police arrested 17,528 suspects for human trafficking crimes, including 19 of the 20 most-wanted, said its statement.”
The origins of the trafficking apparently are from Southern China.“Most of the children were trafficked from Southern China’s Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan provinces and sold to Fujian, Guangdong, Henan, Hebei and Shandong provinces, said Zhang Baoyan, founder of Baby Come Home, which is also a volunteer group affiliated with the Ministry of Civil Affairs.”
This article published in November 2010 discusses how“Guangxi cracked 469 cases of trafficking in women and children, cracked cases to be handled 9 Ministry of Public Security, the fight out of 56 criminal gangs trafficking, rescued 486 trafficked women and children.”
http://tinyurl.com/4w5nvbe [China Daily 11/19/10]
Child Buying Acceptable
A few days ago, this article was published discussing how people buy children over the internet in China. Dispelling a common adoption agency marketing fallacy about which type of children are available for adoption today in many large-city Chinese orphanages, one of the potential buyers states, “”We visited several orphanages. The only orphans left there were disabled.”
http://china.globaltimes.cn/society/2011-02/621284.html
[Global Times 2/10/11 by Zhang Han]
This opinion piece discusses the disparity in penalties.
“[P]enalties facing kidnappers, there is an odd lack of law enforcement for those buying the children. When the children are rescued, the buyers, who usually paid a lot of money, are seen as victims. Unless there are harsher punishments and strong public opinion condemning the buying of children, there will be no end to child trafficking.”
http://opinion.globaltimes.cn/observer/2011-02/621684.html
[Global Times 2/11/11 opinion]
Microblogs and Ordinary-Citizen Help
One of the groups that track these missing kids is Baby Come Home. You can find their website with all the photos of the registered missing children here: http://www.baobeihuijia.com/.
Micro-blogging is helping to reunite these children. A new blog started by a professor “has nearly 110,000 readers following the updates and, more critically, a 1000-strong and rapidly swelling national photo archive of possible child-trafficking victims. Users can upload pictures of children who may have been abducted.”
This reunion story made international headlines a few days ago.“Peng Gaofeng wept as he finally glimpsed Wenle, who was snatched from outside a store in early 2008 and had been forced to live 1700km away with a fake family and false name.” Possibly a half dozen other children have already been reunited with their families through this blog.
This professor’s blog can be found here (it takes awhile to load): http://t.sina.com.cn/1932619445um
[The Australian 2/11/11 by Leo Lewis]
China’s Ministry of Public Security is using the internet and ordinary citizens to protect vulnerable children as well. People are being urged to “ call the number 110 if they believe that a child has been a victim of human trafficking and made to beg.“
[SOS Children’s Village Canada Child Charity News 2/12/11]
Update: MSNBC airs a followup story on Peng Wenle.
“The boy was well looked after by Han’s wife — the woman who became his adoptive mother— even after the 40-something Han himself died of intestinal cancer last year.
“[Han] told everyone that the boy was his from a relationship with a mistress,” an elderly man who lived down the road from Han’s house told us. He was one of three neighbors who appeared to speak freely with us but did not give their names.
It seemed incredulous that the neighbors didn’t find it strange that Han appeared suddenly one day with a child.
But another villager piped up, filling in more details. “He told [his wife] that his mistress was going to marry another guy so she didn’t want the boy anymore,” he said. “He said his mistress cried, and the boy cried, too. [Han] completely made up this story as if it were real.””
“Han’s wife was nowhere to be found…“Han is dead now, but he’s completely destroyed her,” said another neighbor. “She can’t eat, she can’t sleep.””
“Perhaps Han knew he was sick when he grabbed Le Le off the streets of Shenzhen. He already had a daughter, now a teenager. At the very least, he knew at the time that his wife was unable to have any more children. Years ago, during a procedure to remove her appendix, the doctors cut her tubes by accident.
He had also considered Le Le’s future. Not long after the boy joined the household, Han brought home a baby girl. She was to be Le Le’s childhood companion and later his bride.
“She was three months old when she was brought here,” recalled one of the neighbors. “Now she’s almost three.”
Han was believed to have adopted her for $137.”
““I always thought people who buy children should be punished severely,” Deng[the microblogger] said later. “Until I saw her. She was such an old woman. No matter what, she tried very hard to take care of the boy. She sent him to school and gave him the name, Wei Cheng, which means ‘Go on to have great achievements.’”
Remembering but moving on
Since we last saw her in the spring of 2009, Xiong Yini — Le Le’s real mother — is still very slight but her face is fuller, less angular. She and Peng had another son, Peng Wenbo, who is just over a year old. She still has the same gentle, warm manner, but it’s now tinted with the glow of joy at having Le Le back.
“He does look different now. When I saw him, I felt a bit strange,” she said. “But when he moves and smiles, I know for sure, everything is familiar again [although] he still has a little bit of a Jiangsu accent when he speaks.”
“Xiong has not broached with her son the subject of his kidnapping, but she hopes he will forget the experience. “He remembers how he was kidnapped,” she said. “He says he hates the man who took him away.””
“Peng said he will not press charges against Han’s wife. “I’m doing this for my son. I don’t want him to hate me later,” he explained to us. “It’s complicated. He’s emotionally connected to that family.”
Both Xiong and Peng say they want to move on. For them, all that matters is that their family is complete again.
Another mother waits
Back in Rongzhuang, Han’s wife waits. The little girl who had been her “daughter” is still in official custody.”
Two Families Linked by a Kidnapping
[MSNBC 4/12/11 by Adrienne Mong]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
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