Baby-smuggling plot folied in China
Police in southern China have foiled a plot to smuggle baby girls for sale.
Twenty-eight girls were found hidden in suitcases on a long distance bus in the Guangxi region – one of the country’s poorest regions.
Chinese authorities say an unknown number of children are abducted every year for sale to childless families. Older girls are sometimes sold as brides in rural areas with fewer women.
The babies found in Guangxi were all under three months old, and one died after they were found, local reports said, adding that the smugglers might have drugged them to keep them from crying and being discovered. Police said they did not know where the babies were being taken.
Rural Chinese families traditionally value boys over girls because they carry on the family name, work in the fields and care for their parents.
