Chinese Are Selling Babies Just To Survive

20/05/2010

Secret China Staff


The Wuhan Court put the Yu Lixiang baby trafficking group on trial a couple days ago, but the rescued babies have not found their biological parents. According to police, those babies were probably being sold by their biological parents. The suspects said that poor people in the mountain areas of Yunnan were selling their babies for profit. Currently, the babies are still being cared for by the buyers. The Beijing News reported that Yu Lixiang and her ex-husband, lover, and sisters have formed the baby trafficking group for four years and sold a total of 49 babies from Yunnan Province to Hebei Province.

Last June, Yu Lixiang was arrested by Wuhan railroad security police while transporting the babies. A total of 23 suspects were arrested by police by last August.

Deputy Director Cui Zhihong of Wuhan railroad security criminal investigation explained that the price for a baby girl was about 6-7,000 yuan and a baby boy 12-15,000 yuan in 2005. But in 2008 and 2009, a baby boy increased to nearly 40,000 yuan and a baby girl about 20,000 yuan.

“Blood samples were taken from all rescued babies and sent to the DNA database in the Ministry of Public Security for comparisons. However, so far not even one baby's biological parents have been traced,” explained Mr.Yang Jingping, the deputy director of the Public Security Bureau. His analysis is that since no biological parents have been traced, it indicates that the parents likely sold the baby and therefore no parents reported that their baby was missing.

Mr. Din San, the director of Wuhan railroad branch of the public prosecution attorney, said that he learned from some of the suspects from Yunnan Province during the trial, “One can make more money from giving birth to a baby than raising pigs.” In some poor areas of Yunnan giving birthing babies becomes a money making business.

Professor Wang Dawai of China Renming University thinks that the reason the child trafficking is flourishing is because the families selling the babies have not been punished harshly enough.

But Mr. Hang Xing, the lawyer of the chief suspect Yu Lixiang, said that only when someone's goal is to kidnap or buy babies to sell, according to Chinese criminal law, it is considered a crime. However, the families who buy babies to raise them are a different story.

Mr. Yang Jingping also added, “At present, all rescued babies are back to the families who bought them. Since no biological parents were found and the government cannot afford to keep them. Returning them to the buying families seems to be a good alternative.”

Mr. Din San also said, ”Without the biological parents, they have to be sent to the orphanages and that would affect their growing up and add more injury to the babies.”