Child Trafficking in the Mainland China

Lok H. T.
April 2016

Introduction
Approximately 200,000 children disappear in China every year, and only 0.1% of
them can be found. Some of them are kidnapped, being sold by their own parents
voluntarily and so on, for illegal adoption, laborers, household servants, prostitutions
and so on (, 2013; Hasija, N., 2013; Hays, J., 2015) Yet, Chen Shiqu, who
is the head of the Ministry of Public Securitys department in charge of children
abduction cases denied the figure, claiming that it was false and had no basis for it. A
father even was found to search for his missing son by going across Chinas 4 biggest
cities and 19 out of 20 provincial capitals on his own for years time, without any
support and help offered by any governmental organs or officers (Patience, M.,
2015). On the other hand, in most cases, the traffickers do not receive criminal
punishments, but administrative penalties solely (Hays, J., 2015). One may see that
the seriousness of child trafficking cases in Mainland China may fuel by the policing
and jurisdictions of cases. In light of that, one may want to study the evolutions of
legal laws on child trafficking protection in China throughout decades, the tendency
of the crime, factors that have contributed it and suggestions in reducing the crime.
Definition
By taking the definition set by the United Nations in Article 3 of Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
(2000), it states that:
(a) Trafficking in persons shall mean the recruitment,
transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of
the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of
fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of
vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to
achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for
the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum,
the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual
exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to
slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;
(b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended
exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be
irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have
been used;
(c) The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt
of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered
trafficking in persons even if this does not involve any of the means
set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article;
(d) Child shall mean any person under eighteen years of age.
As China is one of the States Parties of the protocol, which accession was made on
the 8th February 2010, the above definition is applicable. In this study, one will stick
with the above definition for analyze. One example can be used to summarize the UN
definition. Receipt an infant whose parents sell him voluntarily or a 17-year-old
woman gives consent to work as a prostitute and follows a trafficker to another place
and work in a brothel, the traffickers do not shun the criminal liability for the charge
of child trafficking in both cases.
Current Legal Law

China has two sets of laws, Criminal Law of Peoples Republic of China and Law of
the Peoples Republic of China on Public Security Administration Punishments. They
separate offenders into law-breakers and criminals. Women and Child Trafficking is
an offence listed in Article 240-243 in Criminal Law, which makes it a criminal
offence, and offenders will be criminally punished. For instance, women and child
traffickers will be given principle punishments, such as fixed-term imprisonment
ranging from three years to life-imprisonment, ringleaders will be granted death
penalty. Supplementary punishments, like fine or confiscation of property may go
along with the principal punishments.
Albeit the Criminal Law of Peoples Republic of China has amended several time
throughout 1997-2011, from Criminal Law of Peoples Republic of China (97
Revision) to Amendment (VIII) to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of
China, a total of 9 revisions, Articles 240 to Articles 243, have remained the same.
However, the latest revision, Amendment (IX) to the Criminal Law of the People's
Republic of China, was passed in 2015, which made the latest Criminal Law. It has
increased the penalty of traffickers who do not maltreat victims from exempted from
criminal liability to given a lighter punishment, or punishment may be commuted.
In another words, traffickers who are engaged into the activity cannot run away from
the criminal liability under any circumstances.
Moreover, except the Criminal Laws, Notice issued to provide advises, answers and
guidelines on Women and Child trafficking cases investigation, intelligence or
evident gathering or laws interpretations also affect the law enforcements. For
instance, notice on law interpretations released in 2009, the Supreme Peoples Court
published interpretations and further elaborations on the existing laws, given that
the primary function of the Supreme Peoples court is to exercise leadership over
lower level courts. Moreover, a formal justice system was composed of three
branches: the public security organ (the police), the peoples court and the peoples
procuratorates. Take the Notice issued in 2010 as an example, one can know that
these three branches, have to co-operate with each other in order to combat the
crime of child trafficking. For instance, Article 1 in Notice [2000] Number 25, public
security organs at different levels are under the horizontal supervision and
leadership of government agencies at the same levels. In light of this, the notice
stated that when two public security bureaus which are from the same level, for
instance, district level public security bureaus, are in conflict of taking a woman and
child abduction cases, they should seek advise from organ that is one level ahead of
them, such as the provincial public security bureau.
Tendency of child trafficking
The United States Government in the Trafficking in Person (TIP) Report released in
July 2015 classified China to Tier 2 watch-list in combating Human Trafficking.
Countries that fall into the category of Tier 2 watch-list are described as The
governments of countries that do not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims
Protection Act (TVPA)s minimum standards and are not making significant efforts
to do so. Besides, it also mentioned that there is very limited public data released by
the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) on the arrest or conviction of human
trafficking offences. One may agree on the statement to a large extent. According to
the high court, 12,963 traffickers who had abducted women and children had passed
sentence during 2010-2014 (Zhang, Y., 2015). However, given that the government
arrested 194 alleged traffickers and convicted at least 35 traffickers in 2014.

Comparing the data, one may find it confusing with the huge difference on number of
cases. Besides, putting the data and the report mentioned above, 200,000 children
disappear in China every year, into comparison, the prosecution rate is way behind
the rate of victims getting into the industry. Moreover, according to the Annual
Report on International Parental Child Abduction (IPCA) issued by U.S. Department
of State Bureau of Consular Affairs, the table below reflects the number of abduction
or access cases that met the specific data required by International Child Abduction
Prevention and Return Act (ICAPRA) in 2014.

One can see that data and statistics on human trafficking in Mainland China are
inadequate to a large extent. In another words, there is ample of dark figures. This
may be related to the quality of recording and managing of data in the formal justice
system, for instance computerized data based and channeled to a central point for
analysis may not be applicable across the whole nation, government resists to
disclose true figures to the public, so as to convey an image of a safe and stable
nation to the world under the ruling of the Communist Party and so on. Yet, the
biggest contributor to the low figure may be the culture and regulations set for the
police in Mainland China. For instance, many local police stations will not accept a
missing person case within 24 hours, unless there is adequate evidence proving that
it is a kidnapping case. In light of it, the possibility to find the kidnapped victim is
extremely low after 24 hours. Police will take the case as missing person instead of
child abduction cases. Due to limited official data of child abduction, prostitution,
and fraudulent adoptions with trafficking offenses, it is not clear of the exact number
of trafficking cases that the government has investigated and prosecuted in
accordance with Criminal law (U.S. Department of State, 2015). Also, Smolin, D. M.
(2006) has stated that there is no way to precisely measure the incidence of illicit
child buying, stealing, kidnaping, and trafficking within the current intercountry
adoption system. However, one can always have a brief understanding on the
tendency of child trafficking via various reports.
According to Chen Shiqu, the head of the Ministry of Public Securitys department, a
new department has set up to look into child abduction in 2007, which had solved
54,000 cases of trafficked children between April 2009 and the end of 2012. One can
see that data vary from different departments in Mainland China. On the other hand,
his department has set up an online database in 2009 for missing kids, but it
contains 60 cases solely. One can see that some attempts to combat child trafficking
in Mainland China were made, yet, effectiveness and supervisions of the strategies
are in doubt. With reference to the United Nations Action for Cooperation against
Trafficking in Persons (UN-ACT), trafficking has become an increasingly complex

phenomenon in China. There are various industries trafficking child victims will get
into in general. For instance, forced marriage, adoption, street performance, begging
and theft. In addition, the average age of trafficked victims has decreased due to
increased trafficking of infants.
Factors contributing to child trafficking
First off, given that child trafficking is a very profitable industry, it fuels the business
in Mainland China. In accordance with Karl Marxs theory, one will ignore or break
the law if the profit that a business can generate is high. This goes along with the
Rational Choice Theory, one will commit a crime when profits of a crime outweigh its
risk and costs. According to Chen Shiqu, traffickers buy children for about RMB
30,000 and sell them for RMB 70,000 to RMB 90,000 in China. In another case, a
total of 13 traffickers were convicted of abducting a total of 46 baby boys from inland
provinces and selling them in rural Anxi County, Fujian, for between RMB 30,000 40,000 each. These can show that traffickers can generate considerable amount of
money in this business.
Besides, albeit the one-child policy was replaced by two-child policy on 1st
January,2016 (Xinhua, 2015), the old policy was still one of the biggest factors
contributing to child trafficking. With the existence of traditional thinking in Chinese
culture, boys are more preferable to girls. This is because boys allow the family
"carrying on the family line" and "having sons to support them when they grow old"
are vital in Chinese societies. In light of this, sons were a treasure, while girls were a
burden in Guangxi and in many places in rural China. Parents would sell their baby
girl to traffickers to get rid of the burden and to get a certain amount of money at
the same time. One can see the low value of baby girls from a case, a Fujian young
couple in China was found guilty of selling their 18-day old daughter in order to gain
enough money to buy themselves a new motorcycle and iPhone. As people tend to
sell baby girls or undergo abortion due to one-child policy, sex ratio imbalance fuels
child forced marriage. Selling a girl to be child bride is rampant in Mainland China.
On the other hand, boys are also prone to be trafficked as well, for instance, poor
parents may sell them to comparatively wealthier families who need an heir to
continue the family business or to ensure the family name remains intact. Baby boys
can sell for as much as RMB 99000 approximately (Yik-Yi Chu, C., 2011; Zhang, Y.,
2015; Thornhill, T., 2015; Zeldin, W.,2010; Hein,B., 2016).
On the other hand, child neglect and low education level of children make them
vulnerable to trafficking. Child neglect is rampant as there are seasonal migration
periods in Mainland China, millions of kids of migrant workers are left behind in
these period of time. Low awareness and education level make children easily
deceived and persuaded to go with strangers. Besides, according to Article 7 in
Regulations Banning Child Labour, children cannot start to work until 16 years old,
yet, they finish school at the age of 15. The gap year leaves the children prone to be
exploited in informal work. Also, due to their lower educational backgrounds, ideal
job can be hardly found by them. In light of that, they will be willing to follow the
traffickers without second thought once they see a chance to work for an attractive
salary (Ebbe, O. N., & Das, D. K., 2007; Walk Free Foundation, 2014).
Discussion
There has been a huge debate on whether a new law should be granted to sentence all
human traffickers to death in order to increase the cost, risk and deterrence effects

on human trafficking in Mainland China throughout years. Yet, according to the 3P

theory, one may think that instead of debating on the Prosecution penalty, focus
should be shifted on Prevention and Protection. Besides, there is the 4th P,
Partnership, suggested by the Secretary of State Hilary Podham Clinton in 2009
(Peters, A. J., 2013). They will be discussed below.
Prevention emphasizes on the effectiveness of putting policies into practices and the
awareness of the citizens on the issue. One can see that although there are various
notices and amendment of laws were issued by the government, how effective is the
policy implementation going is still questionable. This is because there is no official
statistics and data published, evaluations of plans and strategies are then hindered.
In addition, Local Law enforcement apathy happens frequently. The local police
views chasing after a trafficker for a child is a waste of time and resources cause
theyre unlikely to be solved. This culture may fuel the business of child trafficking as
the risk of being arrested by committing the crime is not high. Record of suspected,
arrested and convicted cases should be standardized and kept in record. This favors
supervision, monitoring and altering of strategies that do not work or when crime
trend or pattern changes. By the requirement of handing in reports and figures to the
higher level organs frequently can also give pressure to local police officers to take in
cases, or else they will be questioned for their work progress and efficiency.
Independent Police Complain Department should be set up for public to make
complain towards police officers if they refused to take in cases about missing child
or suspected child trafficking. Besides, by taking The Amber Alert Program
established in USA as an example. It is a system that allows the police to publish
messages and warnings about child abduction cases to the citizens via different
means of media. The repeated reminders in their daily lives can increase citizens
awareness significantly. The broadcast and publish of the most serious childabduction cases are available on television, radio, high-way signs, internet, citizens
mobile phones and so on. Parents may have higher awareness in keeping an eye on
their children when they are keeping being reminded. Promotion of the latest reports
and strategies granted from the government can also be done via the system to
educate the citizens.
Moreover, Effective victim Protection includes 3Rs, Rescue, Rehabilitation and
Reintegration. Yet, one will focus on Rescue in the field of protection solely in
this study. In the sense of Rescue, it highly correlates with the idea of the 4th P,
Partnership. By taking The Amber Alert Program as an example. According to U.S.
Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, the Ambers Alert Program is a
partnership between law-enforcement agencies, such as police, broadcasters,
transportation institutes, the wireless enterprises and so on, in order to provide the
latest news about child abduction cases to the citizens. The effectiveness of it can be
seen by the statistics, as of December 23, 2015, there had been 800 children rescued
and returned based on the system. There were also cases shown that some traffickers
were deterred by the Amber Alert system and released the abducted child (Zgoba, K.,
2004). In Mainland China, there are registration police who gets involved with the
local residents and spend most of their time on local affairs. They can have clear
distinction between outsiders and insiders of a particular neighborhood. This favors
the establishment of a similar system, to send a broadcast alert to citizens when there
are strangers entering the village. Parents will be more careful after getting the
reminder by the registration police. Close communication can also resulted between

citizens and police organs, as messages can be passed down to citizen efficiently. This
favors the intelligence flow in tracking down traffickers and rescue victims.
In a nutshell, one can see the definition of child trafficking, evolutions of criminal
laws in China on the topic, tendency of child trafficking in latest years, factors fueling
the industries and some possible suggestions in tackling the crimes. Yet, in order to
favor in-depth study of strategies in combating child trafficking, more data collection
and statistics needed to be taken, so as to have a comprehensive understanding of the
trend. In light of it, further study is needed, as there is amendment of Criminal Law
in 2015, and the absence of all-rounded or comprehensive data nowadays.

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