Eight detained for child trafficking in China

BEIJING - Eight people, including two women, have been detained after being caught selling infants in China’s Fujian province, police said Saturday.

Frontier defence police in Fuzhou city, capital of Fujian, captured three suspects from a car during a routine road check on Dec 24, 2009, when the two women and a man were on their way to Pingtan county to sell two infant girls there, Xinhua news agency reported.

During interrogation, the three suspects confessed that they had bought the girls from Jiangxi province at a price of 10,000 yuan ($1,471) each, and were planning to resell them at a price of 15,000 yuan ($2,197) each, police said.

The other five suspects in the child trafficking racket were detained in the following three months.

Investigations show that child traffickers have altogether sold 12 infants, which includes 11 girls and a boy. The suspects allegedly bought the girls from parents in the remote countryside where boys are preferred.

Police have so far rescued only five of the smuggled infants and are in search of the remaining seven.