Chinese woman jailed for baby-trafficking
A Chinese woman has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for selling eight babies after telling their parents she would find adoptive homes for them.
Li Xiulian was sentenced yesterday by a court in the south-western city of Qujing in Yunnan province.
The babies were believed to have been born in violation of government rules that limit most Chinese couples to one or two children, said court spokesman Ou Hongyan.
“The families could not keep the babies so Li told them she would find good homes for them,” Ou said. “However, after she got them, she simply sold them off to buyers.”
Thousands of Chinese babies are sold or abandoned every year by poor families or unmarried mothers.
Experts say China’s strict birth-control limits encourage a black-market trade in babies, because those that are purchased and registered as adopted don’t trigger official penalties.
Li made a profit of up to 1,000 yuan (€103.20) on each baby sold, the newspaper Shanghai Daily reported.
Most of the babies were traced to farm families living around Qujing, a small city in poor, largely rural Yunnan, Ou said.
Neither Ou nor the newspaper reports identified the buyers.
Buyers of girls often want a servant or a future bride for a son, while buyers of boys are often older couples motivated by a traditional desire for sons to carry on the family name.
Last month, a court in southern China sentenced 10 people to up to 15 years in prison on charges that they sold at least 78 babies, some of them abducted.
