Vietnamese Women and Others Tried For Trafficking Children into China for “Adoption” UPDATED

“TWENTY-FOUR suspects, including 10 Vietnamese women, stood trial yesterday in a south China court for trafficking children across the China-Vietnam border, local officials announced today.

The suspects were members of a human trafficking ring that bought more than 20 infants in Vietnam, smuggled them across the border and sold them to Chinese families from June 2 to July 15 last year, the officials said.

The Intermediate Court of Fangchengang has not yet announced its verdict for yesterday’s trial.

Fangchenggang is a city that shares the border with the Vietnamese city of Mong Cai, where the babies were smuggled. Chinese police busted the ring and arrested its members in July 2011.

According to Chinese Criminal Law, trafficking three or more children can lead to a prison term ranging from 10 years to life. If the offense is severe, the guilty party can even receive the death penalty.

Human trafficking is a serious problem in China. Numerous cases of young women being kidnapped from poor southwestern regions and sold to rural families in faraway provinces have been uncovered over the past decade. Infants, usually baby boys, are largely sold to sterile couples who are not qualified to adopt children. “
Vietnamese women tried for trafficking children

[Shanghai Daily 8/28/12]

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Update: “Chinese police on Friday transferred 10 abducted children of Vietnamese nationality to the Vietnamese authorities in Fangchenggang, a city in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

In February 2011, Fangchenggang police uncovered a case in which a group of Vietnamese were suspected of illegally crossing the border, and abducting and trafficking children of Vietnamese nationality from Guangxi to its neighboring province, Guangdong.

Chinese police made a thorough investigation of what appeared to be a transnational children-trafficking gang, which they say was led by two Vietnamese suspects.

In July 2011, Chinese police seized 43 suspects, 10 of them Vietnamese, and saved 10 abducted Vietnamese children, who were later transferred to social welfare institutes in Guangxi.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, Chinese authorities have always paid high attention to cracking down on transnational abductions and trafficking crimes, and positively promoted pragmatic cooperation with the Vietnamese authorities and other foreign police.

Since 2009, the Chinese police have rescued and repatriated 1,804 abducted women of Vietnamese nationality and 41 abducted Vietnamese children. ”

China transfers 10 abducted Vietnamese children to Vietnam

[Global Times 5/3/13]

Update 2: “China has stepped up its fight against child trafficking by sentencing to death Huang Qingheng, a Vietnamese ringleader who led a group that kidnapped and sold 23 Vietnamese infants to famililies in China.

Twenty three other members of the group, most of them also Vietnamese or have unconfirmed Vietnamese citizenships, were meted sentences ranging from 22 months of imprisonment to life sentences.

The Guangxi Zhuang court, which handed down the verdict on the group’s child trafficking activities Friday, also ordered the group members’ properties confiscated as fines for their crimes.

Based on court records, the group illegally transported the Vietnamese infants to the border town of Dongxing, Guangxi and sold them to Chinese families in Guangdong province.

The cross-border child trafficking happened between 2010 and July 2011, and involved 23 infants who were just a few days old, according to court records.

Apart from transporting infants past the border, the child trafficking group also smuggled pregnant Vietnamese women to China where their new-born infants were then put up for sale.

A court official said the cross-border child trafficking crime took more than a year of trial to arrive at the death sentence for the group’s leader and jail terms for the members because the case involved a collaboration between neighbor-countries, specifically Vietnam and China.

Nearly half of the Vietnamese infants who were kidnapped, smuggled and sold in China were rescued and returned to Vietnam during the course of the investigations in 2013, court spokeman Huang Qiong added.

Huang said all the effort that Chinese and Vietnamese police poured into solving the case and netting the group of Huang Qingheng was well worth it because it sends a strong message to other child traffickers that their activities will be severely punished.

China’s Ministry of Public Security lauded the effort saying it has gained good ground in protecting women, children and families from the child trafficking menace.
China has had a 10-year standing agreement with its neighbor-countries in Southeast Asia to help one another in the fight against human trafficking.”

Child Trafficker Gets Death Penalty in China[China Topix May 18,2014 by Ying Zhin]