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THE LOST GIRLS: HUMAN TRAFFICKING AS A CONSEQUENCE OF
THE ONE-CHILD POLICY
ANNABELL MONTE
MARY BALDWIN COLLEGE
Since around 1200 CE, China has held the distinct privilege of holding the title of the
most populous country in the world. 1Throughout history, China’s population tended to serve as a
reflection of each Dynasty’s success, fluctuating during periods of prosperity and falling during
times of poverty. This trend can still be seen in China today, where the country’s present state of
economic success has set the ideal backdrop for the country’s population to swell into the
billions if left unregulated.
Anticipating that China would one day face serious economic, environmental and social
problems because of the country’s surging population, Deng Xiaoping in 1979 established the
one-child policy2. Created in the hopes of slowing down China’s booming population, which at
the time was quickly approaching one billion, the one-child policy limited families to having one
child. While the policy has been greeted with approval by many Chinese, with an approval rating
of over 76% in 20083, the policy has also been severely criticized by some sources both inside
and outside of China as a violation of human rights, particularly in regard to women! Although
initially pushed as the policy from which many women could benefit, the one-child policy has
ultimately failed to fix the root of the problem of women’s inequality, specifically the belief that
men hold more value over women. Due to the traditional preference of sons in China, it has also
led to a severe disproportion between men and women. By 2005, there was a ratio of 118 boys
born to every 100 girls and as high as 130 boys to every 100 girls in some rural provinces of
China. It is estimated that by the year 2020, 30-35 million Chinese men of marriageable age will
have trouble finding women to marry4.
1
Donald Altschiller, Ed. “The Reference Shelf: China at the Crossroads.” (The H.W. Wilson Company,
1994).
2
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Republic of Lithuania, Family Planning in China,
2009, http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/ce/celt/eng/zt/zfbps/tl125241.htm (accessed February 9, 2009).
3
Pew Global Attitudes Project, “The Chinese Celebrate Their Roaring Economy, As They Struggle with
Its Costs,” 2008, http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=261. (Accessed March 4, 2009).
4
SFGate, San Francisco Chronicle, “China Facing Major Gender Imbalance,”http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/01/12/international/i025809S57.DT&hw=marriage&sn=002&sc=467. (Accessed
February 18, 2009).
126
It is because of the growing imbalance between men and women, exasperated by the onechild policy, that a market of trafficking and selling women from neighboring countries and even
from within different parts of China has opened up. Specifically geared towards men of
marriageable age, the practice of “bride buying” has slowly become a viable way for men from
villages with few women to find wives.
What is the One-child Policy? The history and reasoning behind this extreme law
Today China is a rising super power. With its vast population and rapid economic
growth, China will one day replace Japan as Asia’s economic leader. Despite China’s continuous
growth, the people still live under the thumb of a totalitarian government where they frequently
suffer various human rights violations. Protesting against the government, practicing religion
freely, moving at one’s will, and speaking freely are among the many things that are strictly
prohibited by the government.5 The one-child policy is also one of the many extreme examples
that demonstrate how, although China may be economically free, they have yet to experience
true individual freedoms.6
Enacted in 1979, China’s one-child policy was implemented in order to slow the
country’s surging population. Historically an agricultural nation, Chinese families traditionally
consisted of numerous children in order to lessen the work load on the farm, increase
productivity, and to ensure that parents would have someone, typically a son, to care for them in
old age. However, by the 1970’s, the age old tradition of having big extended families had
caused China’s population to reach well over 900 million7, which began to put a strain on the
country’s already limited resources.8 By then, the communist party had already made continuous
Even though China’s government prohibits many things, including protesting against
the government, moving freely within China, and practicing religion openly, it is common today
for many Chinese to go against these prohibitions. For example, in China many Chinese protest
against their government, practice religion of their choosing and move throughout the country
freely. However while it is common for Chinese to break these laws, they do so with caution.
The Chinese government does not hesitate to incarcerate its citizens or sentence them to years in
a labor camp.
5
To learn more about China’s abuse of human rights see, China: Country Reports on
Human Rights Practices.
6
Wilfred Chan and Tim Tan, “The High Cost of a Lower Population- The One-Child Policy.”
YouTube, 2007, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0u7_afmT-8, (Accessed February 1, 2009).
7
China’s limited resources include food, natural resources and land. Today 94% of China’s
population lives on 47% of China’s landmass; the rest of China’s landscape is virtually unlivable
due to mountains, deserts and barren terrain. Jobs are also scarce in a country that has a huge
amount of labor surplus but not enough manual jobs to offer. China’s government predicted that
by the year 2000, China would have a surplus of rural work force of 200 million, but no jobs to
8
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attempts to implement family planning and birth control, only to be denied time after time by
Mao Zedong. However, when Deng Xiaoping finally came into power in 1978, he was
determined to run the country differently than his predecessor had. Reversing Mao’s attempts of
closing China off from the rest of the world, Deng Xiaoping opened China’s doors in an attempt
to modernize and bring the country into the 20th century. By this time, China’s population was
quickly approaching one billion.9 Afraid that this rapid population growth would ruin China’s
attempts to modernize, Deng Xiaoping created the one-child policy, otherwise known as the
“Population and Family Planning Law,” which only permitted families to have one child.10
Presented by the government as a way of protecting the welfare of the state and
promoting the “legitimate rights and happiness of its citizens,”11 the one-child policy restricted
urban families to one child per family and only allowed exemptions to both rural and minority
communities. Typically in rural areas, where more than half of China’s population still resides
(57.7%), couples are allowed up to two children without having to request special permission
from the government.12 The same also holds true for the 8% of the Chinese population that is
made up of ethnic and minority peoples. To keep these small communities from dying out, the
government also allows exemptions for these communities and allows them to bear up to two
children.13
To encourage Chinese families to uphold this law, sanctions and fees were put into place
offer them. To further exacerbate the problem most of the jobs offered today in China are solely
for the educated masses, education which is often not readily available to most rural people.
9
Chan, “The High Cost of a Lower Population.”
10
Gov. cn. Chinese Government’s Official Web Portal, “Population and Family Planning Law of the People's
Republic of China (Order of the President No.63),” 2006, http://www.gov.cn/english/laws/200510/11/content_75954.htm (accessed February 1, 2009)
11
Gov. cn. Chinese Government’s Official Web Portal.
12
"The World Factbook- China." The Central Intelligence Agency. 2009.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html#People. (Accessed April 7, 2009).
The Chinese government allows for exemptions in rural communities because of their farming
livelihood. Traditionally farming families in China had more children because the children could
later be raised to help with the work in the fields. Keeping this mentality in mind, rural families
are allowed more children because it is believed that they’ll need the extra child to help with the
farming.
13
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Republic of Lithuania. While rural and minority communities
are allowed up to two children per family, it is important to note that even in these communities the government is
careful to control family planning to ensure that families do not bear more than two children. It is also important to
mention that the region of Tibet is the only community in China that has no family planning restrictions to adhere to.
128
to ensure citizens wouldn’t be tempted to break the rules. These fees ranged from having to pay
fines annually, to the more severe consequence of making families pay for all of their children’s
medical expenses and schooling.14 On the other hand, to reward families who had upheld this
policy, the Chinese government offered many special incentives. These rewards included, but
were not limited to, offering retirement or “old-age insurance,” medical insurance for the whole
family and childbearing insurance. Furthermore, couples who waited longer to marry and bear a
child, were given extra incentives at work, such as long vacations.15
Initially the one-child policy was praised by many countries. It seemed like a simple and
humane way of alleviating the population and was seen as a good way of preventing future
problems such as environmental impacts, scarcity in food, natural resources and even jobs.
Today the one-child policy is still seen as big success. Since its implementation in 1979, the
Chinese government claims that it has prevented more than 250 to 300 million births and they
estimate that they have 300 to 400 million people less because of it16.
When the one-child policy was initially implemented by China’s government, it was not
only advertised as a way of reducing the population, it was seen as a way of modernizing
traditional Chinese ideals about marriage, family and women. China is one of the world’s oldest
civilizations whose traditions and cultures date back six thousand years17. It is not uncommon to
see many of those thousand year old traditions and ideas still alive and prevalent in China today.
Traditions like arranged marriages, son preference, patrilocal exogamy, and having big families
are all still practiced in China. Therefore, when Deng Xiaoping came into power and began the
process of modernizing the country, it was no surprise that he also attempted to change many of
China’s traditional mindsets as well. The one-child policy was the perfect tool to accomplish this
because it moved China away from the ancient practice of having extended families, and
attempted to promote women’s status in society. However, breaking old habits is never an easy
feat, so to soften the transition away from old habits to new ones, the one-child policy was
promoted as a way of bringing happiness to marriages and families. The idea was that, if there
were fewer children to take care of, families could enjoy a better quality of life in which parents
could invest more time and money into the one child. The real hook, however, was the
insinuation that by giving more to the child, this would inevitably produce a happy and grateful
Typically called the “social fostering or maintenance fee” this could equal out to a
sizable portion of the family’s earnings.
14
15
Gov. cn. Chinese Government’s Official Web Portal.
The New England Journal of Medicine, “The Effect of the One-Child Policy after 25
Years,” http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/353/11/1171 (accessed March 2, 2009).
16
17
China.org.cn. "Formation of the Chinese Civilization ." 2001. http://www.china.org.cn/e-gudai/index1.htm. (Accessed April 4, 2009).
129
child, who would later come back to take care of his or her parents in old age.18
The one-child policy was also, ironically enough, seen as the vehicle for improving
women’s status in Chinese society. By raising women’s education level and attempting to change
the traditional ideas about women, who were usually considered lower class citizens, the Chinese
government cleverly created a safety net to ensure that women would bear fewer children. 19 If
women were better educated and focused more on their studies, they would as a consequence,
have fewer children. By limiting families to one child, women were no longer confined to their
traditional role of taking care of the house and children; women were now free to further their
education and work outside the home.20
An important aspect of the government’s attempt to improve women’s status was trying
to distance Chinese society from the traditional idea of son preference, specifically the idea that
sons were better than daughters, by limiting the practice of “patrilocal exogamy.” Patrilocal
exogamy is the marriage custom in which the bride is given away to the groom and forced to live
at her in-law’s house. Separated from her family, the new wife will spend her life not only
looking after her own children and husband, but forced to act as a servant to her husband’s
family. 21Therefore, not only are brides forced to serve as a live-in maids, women in this situation
are also rendered completely dependent on their husbands and have little choice regarding how
many children they have, her ultimate goal being to bear a son. With little hope for the future,
women in this situation usually bear more children. They unfortunately also become a liability
for their parents, who are not only forced to give away their daughters once they marry, but are
also expected to provide the groom’s family with a dowry.22
The custom of patrilocal exogamy is the perfect example of a traditional Chinese custom
that perpetuates the myth that women are inferior to men, and contributes to China’s high
population. In the case of the Chinese, this custom severely undermines women by forcing them
18
Traditionally it was important for Chinese to have sons because they believed that a
son would come back and take care of his parents in old age, while a daughter was given away to
her husband’s family, never to be seen again. This belief that it is the child’s duty to take care of
their parents in old age is still very popular in China and although once this responsibility had
fallen solely on the son, today that belief is shifting to also include daughters.
19
Altschiller, Ed.
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Republic of Lithuania, “Family
Planning in China.”
20
21
22
Altschiller, Ed.
Andrea Parrot and Nina Cummings., “Forsaken Females: The Global Brutalization of Women.” (Rowan
and Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2006.)
130
to act as servants to their husband’s family where they have little control over their lives, and
inadvertently cause their parents to view them as a lost cause. Therefore, it is no surprise that
Chinese parents refuse to invest in any form of education on their daughters because in the future
she would be given away to another family. A son, on the other hand, would never leave the
family and would always come back to take care of his parents. Traditional Chinese customs like
this have created an environment in which women hold little value and where families will go to
great lengths to ensure that they have a son.23
Fortunately, by using the one-child policy, the Chinese government was successful in
raising the percentage of women who are educated and who worked outside the home. However,
the government’s attempt to raise women’s status in Chinese society was not as successful
because they were never able to eradicate the notion that sons carried more value over daughters.
Instead of forcing the Chinese to abandon this mindset and to accept their daughters, the onechild policy fostered an environment in which parents were forced to choose between the law
and their traditions; and in the end tradition won. This policy has left parents in a situation in
which many will go to extreme measures to ensure that they have a son to carry on their family
name.
Backlash: The consequences of the one-child policy.
Since its enactment, the one-child policy has commonly been cited as a violation of
human rights. Although China, because of its traditional preference for sons, has had a gap
between the sexes since the 1930’s, the one-child policy has become a major contributing factor
in widening the ratio between men and women.24 Forced abortions, infanticide, feticide, the act
of aborting female fetuses, neglect and abandonment of girls, have all become common practices
in China for some parents who are intent on having a son.25
When the one-child policy was first established in 1979, the government was initially ill
prepared for the sudden influx of illegal practices that arose to help needy Chinese couples who
desperately yearned for sons.26 Due to the severe lack of governmental foresight, practices such
23
Andrea Parrot and Nina Cummings.
24
The New England Journal of Medicine, “The Effect of the One-Child Policy After 25 Years.”
25
Andrea Parrot and Nina Cummings.
26
In an interview with China.org.cn, Zhao Bingli, vice minister of the State Family Planning Commission,
was questioned about China’s one-child policy being a violation of human rights. Zhao Bingli admits that in the
early years of the law, some “inexperienced staff handled things in oversimplified and even uncivilized ways as
there were no regulations controlling their actions,” and goes on to say in the same sentence, that even while they
were committing these atrocities (forced abortions was the common way of forcing women to give up their second
child), there were still principles in carrying out the law. I found this statement to be a little contradicting and
confusing, which I thought was similar to their reasoning of the one-child policy.
131
as abortions and infanticide quickly became easy ways for Chinese parents to rid themselves of
their daughters. Prenatal screening for feticide, for example, has become a thriving business in
China. Even though the practice of screening a fetus for this purpose is illegal today, thousands
of fetuses have been aborted because of this medical practice. 27 Due to China’s high population
and lack of governmental vigilance, feticide has replaced infanticide, as a quick and easy way for
Chinese couples to rid themselves of unwanted female fetuses. With today’s technology, any
couple can easily go to the doctors for an ultrasound, determine the fetus’ gender with a high
degree of efficiency, and abort the child if they are unhappy with the results. Thus, not only is
the couple able to rid themselves of the child easily with little emotional attachments, the couple
also runs little risk of being apprehended by the police for aborting their child. 28 It is estimated
that up to 70 percent of all abortions in China, are unwanted female fetuses. 29
Infanticide, the act of killing a child, has also unfortunately become a common side effect
of the one-child policy. Though some Chinese parents chose to rid their child quickly through
prenatal screening, others wait until the child is born and simply let the child die through neglect.
Abandonment of baby girls at city gates, police stations and orphanages has become arguably
one of the more humane ways in which parents give up their child to try for a son. However,
inhuman ways that some Chinese parents have resorted to include, suffocation, drowning,
starvation, crushing the child’s skull right after birth, or injecting the baby’s head with
formaldehyde. 30
According to Zhao Bingli, vice minister of the State Family Planning Commission in
China, China’s Family Planning Law, is not the one-child policy. He explains that although the
government wishes for its citizens to limit their families to one child, many couples are free to
have a second child if they desire.31 However, while this may be true in theory, couples who want
to have another child have to ask for permission from the government by going through a lengthy
application process. While some people have the means by which to go through this process,
most Chinese couples simply chose to have their children without registering them.
Unfortunately, this has led to a big rise in unregistered children. A child without a government
27
Even though the number of “thousands” is vague, no report exists that can state an accurate number of
aborted fetuses. Due to the illegal nature of aborting a fetus because of its gender, most of these cases go unreported.
However, China’s gender gap stands as evidence for the thousands of girls that have gone missing.
28
Andrea Parrot and Nina Cummings, 57
29
United States Congress, Congressional-Executive Commission on China, 54.
30
Andrea Parrot and Nina Cummings, 59
Hu Huiting, “Family Planning Law and China’s Birth Control Situation,”
China.org.cn, http://www.china.org.cn/
english/2002/Oct/46138.htm, (accessed March 4, 2009).
31
132
birth certificate has no rights in China, because the child does not legally exist. Without proper
documentation, a child cannot have access to medical care, schools or even work in the future.
Random checks by China’s State Statistics Bureau have discovered that over forty percent of
children in some villages have not been registered by their parents. Most of these children are
girls. 32
Since the implementation of the one-child policy, millions of girls have been reported as
“missing.” Even though China’s government has implemented many laws to prohibit practices
such as sex-selective abortion and infanticide, these laws hold little sway over parents who are
desperate to bear sons. In 1997, the World Health Organization estimated that more than fifty
million women were missing in China. 33Though, this seems like an insignificant number
compared to the two billion people that exist in China today, it is the underlying message behind
these missing women that is the most important aspect to remember.
Women are so undervalued in China, that if a woman is unable to conceive a son, not
only is she often ostracized by her husband and his family, she is shamed by her whole village.
China’s traditional preference for sons indicates that in some parts of China, especially in rural
villages, a woman’s worth lies with the amount of sons she is able to produce. A woman who
gives birth to a girl, often takes it upon herself to get rid of her child in any way possible, in
effectively also ridding herself of the shame of not being able to bear a son. 34
It is estimated that up to a million girls are abandoned each year by parents desperate to
have a son35. With China’s gender gap growing further apart each year, it is estimated that by the
year 2020, 40 million men will be unable to find brides.36 Today, the consequences of the onechild policy and the inconsequential disregard for women are evident. China is already suffering
through a shortage of women, with 100 girls born for every 120 boys, and with a higher
imbalance in rural villages, where it can range from 130 boys to every 100 girls 37. If one
subtracts from these figures, the number of girls that will die from neglect, abuse or even outright
violence at the hands of their families, the number diminishes even more. As a result, with a
32
Andrea Parrot and Nina Cummings, 59
33
Andrea Parrot and Nina Cummings, 58
34
Andrea Parrot and Nina Cummings, 58
35
Andrea Parrot and Nina Cummings, 60
36
China From the Inside. Women/PBS "China's Future with Fewer Females.".2006.
Public Broadcasting Service . http://www.pbs.org/kqed/
chinainside/women/population.html. (Accessed February 4, 2009).
37
Andrea Parrot and Nina Cummings, 61
133
shortage of women that is looking more severe each passing year, some men are finding it harder
to find wives to marry. This is especially true in rural villages, where the gap between the
genders is the worst in the country, which not only makes finding a bride for a suitable young
man difficult, but makes the issue of locating a wife especially arduous for the poor or disabled
man. To fill the gap between men and women and to fulfill the demand for brides, a market of
human trafficking has arisen as a viable way for some men to find wives.
Background: A general overview of Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is the third most lucrative and money making industry in the world,
after arms dealing and drug trafficking. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the
market of trafficking humans brings in a yearly income well into the billions. Yet, while human
trafficking is a widely pervasive business that happens in over 150 countries38, including China,
most people are unaware of its existence, believing that a practice as barbaric as human slavery
couldn’t possibly exist in modern societies. Thus, it is this way of thinking that allows the
business of human trafficking to thrive and expand each year.
Traffickers rely on the mysterious nature of their business, and especially on the
uneducated masses of women and children, from which to derive their victims. It is a business
that is successful, not only because of its secretive nature, but because of its tendency to change
and adapt to fit differing cultures and times. Traffickers change, routes and modes of
transportation change, and even the women who are targeted change. It is because of the
dynamic nature of this business, that authorities have yet been unable to gain accurate knowledge
of human trafficking, leading to the conflicting reports and figures that exist today.
Human trafficking has various definitions because the world community has been unable
to come to an agreement on one set definition. However, the definition that comes the closest to
covering all aspects of human trafficking is by The United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress
and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. This organization defines
trafficking as
“the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of 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 labor or services, slavery or practices similar
to slavery or servitude or the removal of organs.” 39
38
United States Congress, Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Hearing on Human Trafficking
in China. 190th Cong., 2nd sess., 2006, Combating Human Trafficking in China: Domestic and International Efforts.
39
An Absence of Choice: The Sexual Exploitation of North Korean Women in China,
134
The business of trafficking humans is a modern day form of slavery that uses coercion,
threats and violence to force people to work for another’s gain. It is a gross violation of human
rights which denies the victims’ their personal freedom, leads to violence and abuse and puts the
victim’s health in danger. Human trafficking usually includes sexual exploitation, even though it
can take all forms, including domestic service, farm and factory work and even military jobs.
Each year, 600, 000 to 800,000 people are trafficked by the use of force and deception.40
It is a common misconception that all victims of human trafficking are taken through force.
Although this does happen, usually victims willingly go with their traffickers, on the promise of
job opportunities. This unfortunately, makes young, uneducated girls easy targets for traffickers.
In 2005, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that 12.3 million people had
been coerced into forced labor, of this amount 9.5 million come from Asia alone, while 2.45
million are victims of human trafficking. 41 Of the victims who are trafficked each year, most are
used for sexual exploitation, of which the Chinese practice of bride buying is a part.
Unfortunately, human trafficking is a very complex problem with various symptoms. It is
not something that can be solved with a simple solution. The business of human trafficking
usually involves more than one type of crime, from drug trafficking to extortion, which is why
human trafficking is so confusing to authorities. Ultimately, human trafficking consists of a
crime within a myriad of other crimes. 42This practice is also unique and complicated, in that the
source of trafficking varies. Unlike drug trafficking, which is mainly a business related to
organized crime, human trafficking is usually done through private agents who work
independently from one another. Though, at times, human trafficking can become a business of
organized crime, this is rare. In China for example, human trafficking is a product of independent
agents, sometimes friends, neighbors or even family members of the victim. The Triad, China’s
most notorious group of organized crime, is not related to this practice at all, choosing to partake
in more traditional forms of businesses, such as money laundering, and drug trafficking. 43
Anti-Slavery International, 2005, http://www.antislavery.org/homepage/resources/PDF/
Full%20Korea%20report%202005.pdf, (Accessed March 4, 2009).
40
United States Department of State. Department of Health and Human Services.
Human Trafficking Fact Sheet . http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/fact_human2004.pdf. (Accessed March
16, 2009).
41
United States Congress, Congressional-Executive Commission on China.
42
Obi N.I. Ebbe and Dilip K. Das, Eds., Global Trafficking in Women and Children. (CRC Press, Taylor
& Francis Group, 2008)
43
The Illuminated Lantern, “Triads,” 2001,
http://www.illuminatedlantern.com/cinema/archives/triads.php, (Accessed March 9, 2009). Although it is believed
that some parts of the Triads are related to human trafficking, these activities are related to forced labor and have yet
to be linked to trafficking for bride buying. It is also important to note, that the Triads’ link to human trafficking is
small due to their preference for human smuggling, which is less risky and brings in more money.
135
In the end, this crime is not a problem that can be tackled by one branch of government
authority. To fight human trafficking would take the cooperation among various forms of
agencies, such as Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s), Grass Root Organizations, the
United Nations, bilateral cooperation among different countries and even cooperation among
state and national governments within the same country. Human trafficking is a business that
thrives off of the fear and desperation of people in unfortunate circumstances.44 This includes
people who live in poor economic conditions or unstable countries with war or famine. This is
especially true regarding North Korean women who often flee to China to escape the starvation
and desperation of their country. Most of these women, up to 70-80 percent, find themselves
falling prey to traffickers who often sell them as brides to poor Chinese men.45 Above all, human
trafficking is a business that thrives because of the lack of information available about this
practice. Reporters and researches rarely take the time to investigate this topic because of its
secretive nature. This is due to the victims’ unwillingness to talk to authorities about their
experiences. Without the victim’s cooperation, not only is it difficult for authorities to track
down the trafficker, but it is also difficult to gain essential information about human trafficking.
Consequently, without reliable information, government officials are often left in the dark as to
how to fight human trafficking.
Due to the success of human smuggling in China, it is also important to note the
difference between human smuggling and human trafficking, in order to avoid confusion
between the two practices. Human smuggling is the business of transporting people from one
country to another illegally. In this case, the person being transported has paid an extensive
amount of money to a smuggler to get him or her into another country without having to go
through the legal channels. Thus, human smuggling is not a violation of human rights, but a
violation of a nation’s borders.46 Human trafficking, on the other hand, is the act of exploiting a
person for commercial sex or forced labor. He or she will be forced to work for the trafficker,
who ultimately denies the victims’ their personal freedom. Even though the act of exploiting a
human being is called human “trafficking,” this practice does not always have to include the
movement of a person from one place to another. A person could easily be trafficked and forced
to work in the same area that they live in. Therefore, as long as a person, man or woman, is being
exploited for forced labor, they are considered victims of human trafficking.
Human Trafficking: China’s Market of Imported Brides
Human trafficking has always been a sensitive subject in modern society. Many people
tend to turn a blind eye towards human trafficking because they want to believe that a modern
44
Obi N.I. Ebbe and Dilip K. Das, Eds.
45
United States Congress, Congressional-Executive Commission on China.
46
United States Department of State. Department of Health and Human Services.
136
and law abiding society would never allow a practice as archaic as the trafficking of humans to
exist within that society. It is because of this notion and the hidden nature of this business, that
the market of human trafficking is able to exist and thrive, uninhibited by laws. This is especially
true in China where because of corruption, mass migration from villages to cities, a lack of
education on this practice, and above all, a shortage of women that has been exacerbated by the
one-child policy, that human trafficking has recently begun to thrive in China.
Trafficking in China has been on the rise since the 1980s, coincidentally just a year after
the implementation of the one-child policy. Due to China’s traditional preference for boys,
women have become a minority in China, where sometimes, daughters are discarded in order to
make room for sons. Due to the shortage of women, where men, in some rural areas of China,
outnumber women 130 to 100, human trafficking has slowly shifted from providing women for
prostitution to abducting women to sell as brides. Although the practice of bride buying is not
new, 47 the practice has seen a boost of popularity due to the one-child policy.
Cases of human trafficking in China are unique because of the country’s social factors,
which greatly affects the rise and fall of this market. Factors such as governmental oversight,
traditional mindsets, the poor economy and laws like the one-child policy, all breed conditions
that make trafficking in China, both easy and favorable. China is such a vast country, that it is
hard for the government to keep an eye on all its citizens at once. It is safe to say that some parts
of China, especially the rural villages where the local government is expected to keep peace, are
overlooked. With the national and provincial governments taking care of issues they deem of
greater importance, local governments are usually left to their own devises. This tends to create
an environment where local officials set themselves above the state laws or turn a blind eye
towards illegal practices. This is often the case with human trafficking, where many officials
have been known to turn the other cheek, towards the business of buying and selling women for
bride buying. In some rural villages, officials have even been known to work with the traffickers
and aid in the trafficking of women from within China and from outside neighboring countries.
Bride Buying and Forced Marriages and the victims and buyers behind these
practices:
The one-child policy in China has left the country with a disproportionate number of
women to men. With the shortage of women growing more severe each year, bride buying and
forced marriages have recently reemerged in China as a viable way for some men to find wives.
Bride buying is the act of buying a woman from a trafficker in order to force her into marriage. It
is a serious violation of human rights that traps women into a marriage where they are deprived
of their personal freedom and are typically treated as slaves instead of loved wives. The practice
of bride buying goes hand in hand with forced marriages, the idea being that, Chinese men buy
trafficked women in order to force them into marriage.
47
Traditionally, women from high societal families in China were regularly abducted to become wives for
rival tribes or gang leaders.
137
Forced marriage is not a new phenomenon in China. Like the practice of bride buying,
forced marriages have recently reemerged in China as result of the country’s social and
economic situation. The one-child policy, coupled with China’s economic success, has created
an environment where desperate men, struggling to find wives, can easily buy a woman from a
trafficker. Buying women has become easier and more accessible in China, where the high
demand has given rise to a plethora of traffickers who are all willing and ready to meet their
customers’ needs with cheap and beautiful women. Forced marriages are a violation of human
rights according to the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and
Registration of Marriages, which states that “no marriage shall be legally entered into without
the full and free consent of both parties.”48 In forced marriages, one of the parties, in this case the
bride, does not give their free consent to the marriage. Unfortunately, like bride buying,
gathering accurate information and statistics for the number of women that are forced into
marriages each year, is difficult.
Bride buying has become especially prevalent in northern, rural areas of China and along
the North Korean-Chinese border, where women are captured and are sold to men predominantly
from rural villages. Traditionally, rural villages in China have always shown an imbalance
between men and women. The son preference is very strong in villages, because sons can carry a
greater work load on the farm than women. A son can be taught to grow and cut crops and to
raise live stock, all the while staying in the household to take care of their parents in their old
age. Daughters, on the other hand, are typically seen as a liability because they could only handle
a small portion of the chores. Daughters are seen as weak and frail and are limited to cleaning the
house and cooking. Most importantly, women in China are deemed useless because they are
given away at the time of marriage. Therefore, not only are woman able to do far less work on
the farm, the few skills that they could contribute, are eventually given away to her husband’s
family. Here, she would stay, to spend her life taking care of his family, instead of her own.
Hence, if one coupled the son preference with the one-child policy, women today are suffering
through a great gender imbalance in the country side. It is common in rural villages in China for
the imbalance between men and women to be, 130 to 100, reaching even greater disproportions
in some parts of China.
The shortage of women in China has put great pressure on men to find wives. While it is
easier for young, suitable men to find wives in the city, it is very difficult for the poor or disabled
farmer to find a wife willing to marry him. Therefore, not surprisingly, most of the buyers of
trafficked brides are poor and older men from rural villages who have turned to traffickers to
fulfill their needs. Not only is this easier for men, considering that they get to skip the process of
finding and courting a woman, it usually turns out cheaper as well. Men, who buy brides that are
trafficked, get to skip over the process of paying a “bride price.” A bride price is the amount of
money a man traditionally gives to the bride’s family in order to compensate them for the loss of
their daughter. This can range from giving them money, to buying her family various gifts. A
48
"Forced and Early Marriage." Stop Violence Against Women, 2007. http://www.stopvaw.org/printview/
73e40a2d-df46-40b2-8971-2bce6f19ecc2.html, (Accessed March 12, 2009).
138
bride price typically starts from $1,250, to the more expensive amount of $2,500.49 For a farmer
who makes around three hundred dollars a year, bride prices can be very expensive to pay.
However, buying a bride from a trafficker makes the process of finding a wife easier. A man
who buys a trafficked bride ends up paying half of what he typically would have paid to the
family of a woman he was courting.
Today a trafficked bride can cost anywhere from $250 to $800, depending on where she
is purchased from. 50 Buyers of trafficked women, also tend to be people uneducated and
ignorant of China’s laws. Because most of the men who buy brides are rural villagers, many of
them are unaware of the illegal nature of their purchase. Therefore, it is common for many
buyers to believe that they are being wronged, when police arrest them and take away their
“property.” Many fights have broken out among police and rural villagers because of this
misunderstanding. In one extreme case, a buyer and his relatives even went so far as to kill a
police officer, when attempts were made to take away his wife.51 Thus, even though ignorance is
no excuse for committing a crime as atrocious as buying a trafficked woman, human trafficking
can thrive as long as people are unaware and uneducated about this phenomenon.
Women trafficked for bride buying can come from vastly different areas, both from
within China and from other countries. From outside of China, women are usually trafficked
from neighboring countries, including Vietnam, Burma and mostly North Korea. On the other
hand, Women trafficked from within China tend to come from the smaller, poorer villages of
southern China. Provinces such as Guizhou, Sichuan and Yunnan are an example of a few of the
provinces that tend to attract traffickers the most. Although traffickers typically tend to take
women from within China the most due to the cheap costs of transportation and the relative ease
of finding victims in their own country, each year thousands of women from neighboring
countries are also taken. Unfortunately, due to the lack of information, it is difficult to ascertain
the exact number of women that are taken from each specific country. Despite this complication,
a lot of information has been gathered concerning the vast number of women that are trafficked
from North Korea each year.
Since the collapse of the North Korean economy in the early 1990s, the country has fallen
into desolation. Due to the severe shortage of food, the United Nations estimated that by 1998,
two million North Koreans had died of starvation. 52 Famine and desperation has forced
thousands of people to make the risky journey into China, where they go in the hopes of finding
work to support their families back home, more than half of which are women. However, due to
49
Frank Laczko and Elzbieta Gozdiak.
50
Frank Laczko and Elzbieta Gozdiak.
51
Obi N.I. Ebbe and Dilip K. Das, Eds.
52
An Absence of Choice.
139
China’s 1986 agreement with North Korea that promised China would detain and deport all
North Koreans back to their country, finding jobs in China has become practically impossible.53
For North Korean women, this leaves them with very few options. It is because of the
agreement with the North Korean government that women looking for jobs in China are easily
exploited by traffickers. With very few options available to them, women can either work as
cheap labor or prostitute themselves. Consequently, the sexual exploitation of North Korean
women has become a big problem in China. Women crossing into China often find themselves
lured by traffickers who wait at the border, often near the Tamen and Yulu Rivers.54 Typically
they are coerced into going with the trafficker, who promises them jobs, shelter and safety. It is
not until they have been sold to their new husband that they finally realize that they have been
sold as wives to Chinese men. On the other hand, desperate for money, many women also
willing give themselves over to traffickers, who sell them for as low as, $50 to $1,250.55 Women
often chose to marry a Chinese man over prostituting themselves, because they believe that they
have chosen the lesser of the two evils. Sadly, however, most of the women who are sold as
brides are given to poor farmers or older men who treat them as slaves. Wives are forced to take
care of the house, cook and clean for their husbands, and work in the fields, all while raising
their children. Many women also experience brutal abuse at the hands of their husbands. They
are beaten, raped, chained or locked up, to ensure that they don’t run away. Stories such as the
one that follows, is very typical of the experience many North Korean women who are sold as
wives, live through:
“He always stayed beside me and the only thing he wanted was for us to always have sex.
When I became depressed, he beat me. If I was beaten, I could not walk for a week. He beat me
on my face and my body and all my body was bruised black and blue. When the guy saw me
weeping, since we could not communicate because I cannot speak Chinese, he beat me,
suspecting that I did not like him or that I was planning to escape. He bound my wrists and
ankles and beat me.” 56
Even though many North Korean women, who are sold as wives, live in horrible
conditions, many of them stay knowing that if they ran away, they risk capture by the Chinese
government. The fear of deportation back to North Korea keeps many trafficked women from
running away. Under Article 62 of the 2004 North Korean Criminal Code, any person who
53
An Absence of Choice.
54
United States.Cong.Office of the Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs and Bureau of
Public Affairs. Trafficking in Persons Report 2008. http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/105501.pdf.
(Accessed January 31, 2009).
55
An Absence of Choice.
56
An Absence of Choice.
140
escapes to a foreign country, including China, is considered a traitor and is liable to spend up to
five years in a labor camp if caught.57 In the labor camp, many testify to having lived in horrible
conditions. Detainees are subject to forced labor, beatings and torture. For many women, living
in a labor camp means that they are at great risk for rape, forced abortions and infanticide,
especially if the child is known to be fathered by a Chinese man. For a North Korean woman
looking to support her family, the world is a cruel place. Life at home is desolate and full of
death, and while crossing the border to China seems like a good idea, up to 70% that do, end up
being trafficked and sold as wives to Chinese men. 58
Vietnamese women are another example of women trafficked outside of China. Aside
from North Korean women, Vietnamese women, are trafficked to China the most. According to
the International Organization for Migration, there are currently more than 10,000 Vietnamese
women in China illegally, most of whom are trafficked brides.59 Women trafficked from
Vietnam are usually trafficked for prostitution and forced marriages, the beautiful ones sold as
wives, while the less attractive women are sold to brothels. The poverty in Vietnam has made
women especially vulnerable and easy to traffic. Like their North Korean counterparts, women
crossing into China from Vietnam are quickly picked up by traffickers, who deceive them into
thinking they are taking them to find jobs. From there, they are often sold at the border, where
they fetch a price of U.S $250 to U.S $800. They are then trafficked to the provinces of Anhui,
Guangdong, Hebai or Henan, where they will typically spend their lives as wives of poor
farmers.60
It is important to note, that the practice of trafficking for bride buying is usually limited
to within China. Even though, women are taken from neighboring countries such as Vietnam,
North Korea and Burma, this is a relatively new phenomenon. It is more common for traffickers
to abduct women from within China, than to take them from the outside. It is also important to
mention, that while women trafficked from outside of China are taken both for prostitution and
bride buying, women trafficked internally are done so mostly for the purpose of forcing them
into marriages. It is estimated that 10,000 to 20,000 people are trafficked within China each year,
of which 90% consist of women and children.61 Commonly, young girls are abducted from small
57
China. Protection Project.
http://www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/china.doc. (Accessed
January 31, 2009).
58
United States. Cong. Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Hearing on
Human Trafficking in China.
59
Samantha Marshall, "Vietnamese Women are Kidnapped and Later Sold in China as
Brides." Wall Street Journal, 1999, http://www.wright.edu/~tdung/bride_vn.htm, (Accessed March 11, 2009)
60
China. Protection Project.
61
Frank Laczko and Elzbieta Gozdziak
141
rural villages in southern China. Women are taken from villages in the poorer areas of Yunnan,
Sichuan and Guizhou.62 Here, not only are young women vulnerable because of their lack of
education and naivety, but their poverty also makes them easy targets to traffickers who lure
them with promises of jobs and money. These women are then, in turn, trafficked to northern
rural China, where the proportion on men to women is severally imbalanced. The areas where
women are usually trafficked to include, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Guangxi, Hainan and Guandong.63
The trafficking of women has become so severe in some parts of rural China, that the United
Nations Special Report on Violence Against Women reported in 1997 that “between 30-90% of
marriages result from trafficking.” 64 In the Shandong and Jiangsu provinces, a collected 62,058
women, were bought and sold from the years 1968 to 1990.65 In Yunnan Province another 1,000
women and children are trafficked each year.66
What is being done by the Chinese government to remedy human trafficking in
China?
Even though human trafficking in China is a relatively new phenomenon, today the
Chinese government is working hard to try and slow down the rising trend of bride buying and
forced marriages. Since the 1980s, when human trafficking first began to rise in China, the
Chinese government has put several laws in place to prohibit the buying and selling of people. In
1991 the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress created Criminal Law, Article
141, which defined the abduction of women and children for sale to be a crime. This law was
further elaborated upon in 1997, and extended to say that the “abduction, purchase, sale and
delivery of women and children,” are illegal in China. 67Anyone found breaking these laws,
including the buyer and seller, are liable to spend five to ten years in prison. The punishment is
very severe for people who have committed what the Chinese government calls an “aggravated”
crime. This punishment is typically reserved for traffickers who have abducted several women or
for traffickers who have sold women to foreign countries. The punishment for this crime ranges
from 10 years to life in prison.68 A person who buys a trafficked woman is also liable to spend up
62
Frank Laczko and Elzbieta Gozdziak
63
Frank Laczko and Elzbieta Gozdziak,
64
Vitit Muntarbhorn. "Trafficking of Chinese Girls from Yunnan to Thailand via
Myanmar." China's Workers in Asia. http://www.cwa.tnet.co.th/Publications/Newsletters/voll3_2-3/ v13_23_yunnan.html, (Accessed February 5, 2009)
65
Vitit Muntarbhorn.
66
China. Protection Project.
67
68
Vitit Muntarbhorn.
China. Protection Project.
142
to three years in prison. This includes a man who buys a woman for forced marriage. However,
under the Chinese criminal law Article 236, such a person is also subject to punishment under
the Criminal Code on rape. A person who rapes and causes their victim serious injury or death,
such as a man who buys a trafficked bride and then beats her, can face up to 10 years in prison or
a life term, and if the actions of the perpetrator are serious enough, even death.69 In addition to
these laws against human trafficking, China also has laws against forced marriages. According to
Article 257 of the Law Safeguarding Women’s Rights and Interests of the People’s Republic of
China, it is prohibited to force someone to marry against their own will. A person who commits
such a crime is subject to imprisonment for up to two years.70 Laws do exist that prohibit the
practice of human trafficking, bride buying and forced marriages in China.
In 2002, China’s government executed a man who ran a trafficking ring with his wife in
the province of Guangxi. They trafficked a total of 100 women, all of whom, they sold as brides
to poor farmers from the provinces of Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, and Yunnan. They sold each
woman for a price of US $120 to US $360.71 In July 2003, eighteen people were arrested in
southern China for trafficking 42 women, ages 17 to 26, and selling them as brides in the rural
provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Zhejian.72 In December 2003, three men were
sentenced to death after authorities found that they had lured 32 women with promises of jobs
and sold them into marriage.73 Lastly, in 2005, Vietnamese police rescued 165 women and
children, who had been trafficked to China.
According to the Trafficking in Persons Report released in 2005, China investigated an
estimated 309 trafficking rings, arrested 5, 043 traffickers, of which 3,144 they recommended for
prosecution.74 China’s government has also created programs to educate their citizens about the
risks of trafficking. In 2004, the government, working alongside with the Vietnamese
government and UNICEF, created a program to educate the people, including local government
officials, law enforcement, and school systems.75Through this program, videos and pamphlets
were made and distributed throughout the country to warn people about the dangers of human
69
China. Protection Project.
70
China. Protection Project.
71
China. Protection Project
72
China. Protection Project.
73
China. Protection Project.
74
Trafficking in Persons Report 2008.
75
"U.S. Relations with the People's Republic of China." Trafficking in Persons Report. 2005. Consulate
General of the United States. http://hongkong.usconsulate.gov/uscn_traffick_2005060301.html. (Accessed January
31, 2009).
143
trafficking. The government has also set up similar programs in provinces that are typically
targets for traffickers, such as the education program set up in Yunnan province, where plays are
acted out in front of the villagers, depicting situations in which traffickers coerce women into
being sold.76Recently, in 2007, the government announced a five year plan to combat the rise of
human trafficking. The plan will include a nationwide campaign to not only raise education
about this problem, but increase monitoring at bus and railway stations, sea docks and airports, to
prevent victims from being abducted. Under this plan, the government will also offer counseling
services to help women reestablish themselves in society.
China has also made a comprehensive effort to educate women about their legal rights.
Even though this is a small step, especially considering that many women are still uneducated, it
helps women to know the laws about human trafficking, domestic violence, and the one-child
policy. Women, who are educated about these matters, are less likely to become victims.
Most importantly however, China’s government has made a big effort to change the
traditional mindsets of the people. Although the one-child policy is a major factor contributing to
human trafficking, the underlying factor that exacerbates this problem is the traditional mindset
that women carry less value than men. China’s leaders will never be able to fully eradicate the
market of human trafficking if they do not change the belief that men and women are not equal.
A radical shift must be made in the Chinese’ perspective in order to fully abolish this practice
fortunately China’s government has attempted to make this shift by encouraging the people to
accept that women hold just as much worth as men. This is emphasized by posters, videos, and
the sudden push to educate all women. Even though all children receive free compulsory
education up to age eight, many girls stop attending school after this age. Recently, under the
guise of the one-child policy, the government has pushed for parents to treat their daughters in
exactly the same fashion they do their sons and this means loving, spoiling and educating their
daughter to the same extent they would their son. If women were valued and prized the way men
are in Chinese society, the ratio between women and men wouldn’t be a severe, and a need
wouldn’t exist for trafficked brides.
Even though the world can estimate how many arrests China has made, we will never
really know the true amount. To this day, China refuses to release reports that indicate the exact
amount of arrests and prosecutions they have made. From the reports that are released daily by
NGO’s, Congress and other organizations, China has yet to provide adequate resources towards
fighting human trafficking. This includes focusing sufficient police force towards human
trafficking and training their law enforcement to know how to handle situations dealing with
trafficking.
According to the State Department’s report on worldwide trafficking in 2005, which
categorizes and ranks countries according to the efforts they are making to combat human
76
Jill McGivering. "China slow to wake up to human trade." BBC News, 2006.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4775913.stm. (Accessed January 16, 2009).
144
trafficking, China ranked on the Tier 2 Watch List.77 Countries that fall under Tier 2 on the
Watch list, are defined as countries that do not fully comply with the standards set by the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, which calls for countries to “prohibit and punish
acts of trafficking, prescribe punishment commensurate with that for grave crimes, prescribe
punishment that is sufficiently stringent to deter and that adequately reflects the offense’s
heinous nature and to make serious and sustained efforts to eliminate trafficking.” However, they
are also countries that are seen as trying to increase their efforts in the coming years. 78
Unfortunately, China, in 2008, was placed again on the Tier 2 Watch List, because of the
increasing number of human trafficking victims each year, of its failure to provide evidence of
arrests and prosecutions, and due to their lack of victim protection.79
This means that while the Chinese are attempting to make significant efforts to eliminate
human trafficking in their country, they have not fully complied with the requirements set by the
United States State Department. Although China has created laws against the illegal practice of
buying and selling people, not only have they failed to adequately enforce these laws, they have
also failed to increase their efforts to combat trafficking, which includes a serious lack of
protection for their victims. This extends to the women who are trafficked from foreign countries
and are viewed as illegal immigrants by the Chinese government. It is typical for the Chinese
government to deport foreign women, who are victims of trafficking, back to their country.
Unfortunately this can be exceedingly dangerous for women who come from war-torn countries,
such as North Korea. North Korean women, who are found in China and are deported, face years
of imprisonment, torture, forced labor and possible execution, once they arrive in their country.
The standards set by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, clearly states that countries
are responsible for protecting all victims of human trafficking, in this case, including women
from North Korea. By deporting these women back to their country, China has failed to uphold
the agreement set the United States Department of State. Most importantly, by refusing to grant
asylum to these victims, they are helping to create an environment where it is easy for traffickers
to exploit desperate women.
The Chinese government has even been known to fine victims. Even though, officially, it
is not their policy to do so, there have been reported cases of corrupt government officials fining
victims of human trafficking. This is especially true, concerning girls who have been trafficked
from outside of China and are concerned illegal immigrants without proper documentation.
Corruption is also another major problem in China’s fight to end human trafficking. Even
though the government works to implement laws against this practice, the authorities who are
suppose to be enforcing them, do not. Many police officers and local officials have been accused
and arrested for involvement in trafficking women. In some instances, local officials were so
77
Trafficking in Persons Report 2008.
78
China. Protection Project.
79
Trafficking in Persons Report 2008.
145
heavily involved in the business of selling women that they tried to prevent authorities from
rescuing the victims. It has often been the case, that even local police officers and officials were
the buyers of trafficked women, looking to buy brides.80
Even though China has attempted to stop human trafficking, by implementing laws and
education programs, they ultimately fail because the government is not united against the fight. It
is hard for the government to see everything at once, especially when a country has so vast a
population. The higher levels of government need to know that they can trust the people under
them to carry out the laws and enforce them. Unfortunately this is not so. Too many of China’s
local officials and police forces are involved with human trafficking because of the high profit
that can be made. In the end, not only does this undermine the actions of the government, it gives
women, particularly victims, the impression that they cannot go to the police, because they
cannot be trusted.
What is the International Community doing to remedy the problem?
The United States, under the Departments of State, Labor, Justice, and Homeland
Security, have been very aggressive in their efforts to fight human trafficking, both in the United
States and abroad in countries like China. Working alongside China’s government and with
NGO groups such as All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF), and with international
organizations such as the International Labour Organization, United Nations Children’s Funds
(UNICEF), the United Nations and even working with individual countries, the United States has
fought and contributed much to eliminate human trafficking.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton and Congress began the government program to fight
against human trafficking. This resulted in the implementation of the Victims of Trafficking and
Violence Protection Act of 2000. Since then, the trend of making human trafficking a top
international priority continued with President Bush and his administration who reported daily on
the status of trafficking throughout the entire world. These status reports come annually through
the “Trafficking of Persons Report,” which lists each country and gives a small narrative about
the country’s current trafficking situation. All the countries are then categorized according to the
effort they are making towards anti-trafficking. Countries that are deemed to fall under Tier 3,
which represent the countries that are making no effort what so ever to fight trafficking, are
subject to sanctions by the United States.81
In 2000, the bill, Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, was signed
into law on October 28. Among its provisions, the bill promised that the Secretary of State would
80
81
Obi N.I. Ebbe and Dilip K. Das, Eds.
The United States. Congress. Trafficking in Women and Children: The U.S and
International Response. By Francis T Miko. <http://www.humantrafficking.org/publications/486>. (Accessed
March 5, 2009)
146
provide an annual report describing the status of human trafficking in various countries. It
guaranteed that an Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat trafficking would be
established and headed by the Secretary of State. Public awareness would be increased, and
assistance would be given to foreign countries, such as China, who need help funding programs
to eradicate human trafficking. Protection would also be awarded to foreign victims who are in
need of asylum in the United States. Up to 5000 non-immigrant visas would be provided each
year to victims. Lastly countries that are seen as not making a sufficient effort to combat
trafficking will be withheld monetary assistance.82
The United States also contributes to the fight against trafficking, by training foreign law
enforcement and immigration officers to be able to identify traffickers and victims when they are
coming into or leaving a country. In 1999, the international community, working with the U.N.
Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, created a Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and
Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. On November 15, 2000 the U.N
General Assembly formally adopted the Protocol and it was signed in December 2000 by
countries who promised to work together against traffickers who were working various countries
borders. 83
The International Labour Organization has also contributed a lot of time and effort to
help China fight trafficking. Specifically the ILO has created many projects to raise awareness
and has also contributed money towards creating shelters, counseling centers and informative
materials. In 2000, the ILO created the Mekong Sub-regional Project to Combat Trafficking in
Children and Women. It is a project that has focused on Yunnan Province, which has the highest
rate of internal and cross-border trafficking in China. Working with the community, the goal of
this project is to raise awareness in the village specifically among young girls and women. This
has been accomplished through Women’s Centers that have been built throughout the province
to educate women and to help them locate jobs, therefore avoiding their possible exploitation.
Working with the Yunnan Bureau of Education, this project also offers awareness training
specifically to high risk girls from minority families, along with the continuous distribution of
information. Lastly, a prevention group has also been formed called Combating woman and
Child Trafficking, which works to create large campaigns to educate government workers,
teachers and employers of various businesses. 84
Solutions and Actions to stop human trafficking in China
82
The United States. Congress. Trafficking in Women and Children: The U.S and
International Response
83
The United States. Congress. Trafficking in Women and Children: The U.S and
International Response
84
"China ." HumanTrafficking.org/China. <http://www.humantrafficking.org/countries/china>. (Accessed March
16, 2009)
147
Even though a considerable effort is being made by China and International organizations
to fight human trafficking, the first and most important step to eliminate this practice is
prevention. Human trafficking thrives because people are unaware of its existence, which makes
them vulnerable to falling prey to a trafficker. If a woman is uneducated and oblivious to the
existence of this practice, how does she know to defend herself, when a trafficker offers her the
salvation of a good paying job? How is she to know that she is being tricked into slavery, if she
was never taught to watch out for traffickers preying on desperate, uneducated women? If China
is serious about eradicating the market of trafficking, it is extremely important for women to be
educated about the risks and dangers.
It is also much easier to prevent a woman from being trafficked than it is to rescue a
woman that has already been sold. Especially since very little accurate information is available
concerning human trafficking, it is much easier and time efficient for China to focus its energy
on preventing women from being sold. After a woman is trafficked, is almost impossible to
figure out who the trafficker is and where she was trafficked to. This makes rescuing these
women practically impossible, and leads to years in which the woman has to suffer through
abuse and exploitation. The easiest ways for China to prevent this practice is to educate its
citizens through awareness programs, workshops, distributing reading materials and videos.
Fortunately, the Chinese government has recently created such programs. In Yunnan Province
for example, a seminar was held to raise awareness about human trafficking. This included
educating people about laws against this practice and ways in which people can protect
themselves from traffickers.
A similar project was also undertaken in 2004, when various ministries within China,
working side by side with the International Labour Organization, and the All-China Women’s
Federation, began a prevention project in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, to prevent the
trafficking of women and children. The main idea behind this project was to ensure that women
and children both knew and understood the risks behind human trafficking. The trap of promised
work was emphasized as the way in which traffickers lure victims. This project focused
primarily on sending and receiving provinces. Anhui, Henan, and Hunan were deemed as
sending provinces, while Jiangsu was seen as a major receiving province.85 In partnership with
the All-China Women’s Federation, China’s Ministry of Justice also helped to create and
distribute an anti-trafficking manual to help educate the people.86
A push has also been made by the United States to urge China to stop their censorship
against information on the internet. Since the invention of the internet, it has become a fast and
reliable way of sharing information with people from all parts of the world. Now that most of
85
United States. Cong. Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Hearing on Human Trafficking in
China.
86
"China, All-China Women's Federation (ACWF)." HumanTrafficking.org/China NGO: All-China
Women's Federation, http://www.humantrafficking.org/organizations/84, (Accessed March 16, 2009).
148
China is part of the internet revolution, measures must be to taken to ensure that any who seek
information regarding human trafficking can find it. The sharing of accurate and reliable
information about human trafficking on the internet is a cheap and easy way to ensure
prevention. However, due to China’s internet censorship, many of the government and
nongovernmental sites specifically geared towards this practice have been banned, making
finding information about this practice online, very difficult for the Chinese citizen. In 2006, a
bill was introduced by New Jersey Representative Christopher H. Smith, called the Global
Online Freedom Act of 2006, which would promote the freedom of information on the internet.
This bill would prohibit any U.S company from doing business in a country such as China that
restricts and censors the free flow of information online. 87
Another important aspect of the fight against human trafficking is the need to educate all
government officials and institutions in China. Even though it is very important to educate the
people about the dangers of human trafficking, government departments also need to be made
aware about the existence and risks of this practice. Through the Ministry of Public Security,
China has recently attempted to train and educate all government organizations, including
government officials, law enforcement, and school systems, who receive training through
workshops and classes. In April 2002, a national training class was hosted by the All-China
Women’s Federation and the Australian Committee on Human Rights and Equal Opportunities.
This class was intended to educate government institutions about human trafficking. It was
attended by one hundred people from Guizhou and Sichuan provinces, all from diverse areas of
China’s government including, public security and labor bureaus, women’s federations, and
court employees.88 During the class, lectures were given by Chinese and foreign experts who
discussed various anti-trafficking measures, and led group discussions among the several
different government offices. Classes like these are very important because they educate
government officials and encourage interdepartmental cooperation, all at once.
Recently in October 2007, China’s Ministry of Public Security, along with the National
Working Committee on Children and Women, the UNICP China Office and the International
Organization for Migration, held the National Anti-Trafficking Workshop. Held from August 26
to August 31 in Yunnan Province, the class was geared towards training personnel who are
involved with human trafficking. Personnel who attended came from all areas of anti-trafficking
organizations such as people from the State Council, the Ministry of Public Security, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and officials from Yunnan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Sichuan, Shanxi
and Gilin Provinces (just to name a few).89 The classes focused primarily on defining trafficking
87
United States. Cong. Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Hearing on Human Trafficking in
88
"China." Human Trafficking.org
89
"Report on the National Anti-Trafficking Workshop in China." HumanTrafficking.org/News &
http://www.humantrafficknig.org/updates/712, (Accessed March 16, 2009).
China.
Updates.
149
within China and internationally and also discussed prevention methods, prosecution of
traffickers and legal assistance for victims.
However, while China has made attempts to educate government institutions, they again
fail to make their efforts comprehensive. Typically only higher government officials are trained
or are even aware of the dangers of human trafficking, consequently leaving many government
institutions in the dark. It is important that China makes a more thorough effort of training every
level of government personnel, from the highest state official to the local village leader.
The assistance provided by Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) is also very crucial
to the success of fighting human trafficking in China. Due to the early reluctance of the Chinese
government to recognize the practice of human trafficking as a rising problem that could threaten
the economic and social stability of the country, this practice was able to expand unhindered by
Chinese laws. As a consequence, for a very long time NGO’s were the only resources available
in China fighting against the rising tide of this business. Without the time, effort, and money that
has been provided by these organizations, the trafficking of women, would have been a lot more
detrimental then it is today. The All-China Women’s Federation, for example, is a critical
resource against trafficking. This organization was founded in 1949 to protect the welfare of
Chinese women.90 It is run solely by women and is one of the few nongovernmental
organizations in China that is run by Chinese citizens and that is recognized by the government.
The ACWF has created multiple projects to support women. Current projects include
helping women earn rights to land, health care for women in poverty, equal rights in
employment, equal rights to education and most importantly, fighting to prevent trafficking of
women. The ACWF is critical in China’s fight against trafficking due to their constant
determination to create and implement various prevention and education programs, and their
endless contribution of resources, such as shelters, centers for counseling and job training,
hotlines and informative materials. According to the ACWF website, a current project that is
being sponsored by the organization is the project to prevent trafficking in women within China.
This prevention project is funded by the Chinese government and the United Kingdom’s
Department for International Development, who have both contributed $1.7 million towards
educating women about the practice of trafficking. A portion of that money is also going towards
building 137 women’s centers in six provinces, offering work assistance and safe migration for
women who want to move to find work.91
In June 2006, the ACWF in collaboration with UNICEF and the Ministry of Public
Security, also began a multi level anti-trafficking program in Sichuan Province. This project was
90
"All-China Women's Federation." WomenOfChina.cn, http://www.womenofchina.cn/, (Accessed March
17, 2009).
91
"Panel Created in China to Target Trafficking Prevention." HumanTrafficking.org/News & Updates.
http://www.humantrafficking.org/updates/728, (Accessed March 16, 2009).
150
aimed towards not only trying to prevent trafficking, but also in rehabilitating and educating
victims. Different areas of this program included prevention, through the distribution of
information on flyers, but also on products such as umbrellas, playing cards and backpacks. The
people were also educated on the legal side on trafficking. This included educating the people
about women’s and children’s rights, and employee rights. Vocational training, sponsored in part
by Sheraton hotel was also given to high risk women and young girls. They were taught vital
work skills and some were even hired by the hotel. For victims, rehabilitation through counseling
was offered, along with medical care when needed. Lastly, money was given to the families of
victims so that their children could attend school.92
Sadly, aside from the ACWF, not many NGO’s exist in China as a separate entity from
the government. Due to China’s prevalent control, the NGO sector has been largely underdeveloped until just recently. The ACWF is one of the few organizations that exist as both a
separate entity, and as a recognized institution. In order for China to achieve success against
trafficking, they have to allow the creation of independent organizations and give them the
freedom to do their jobs. China’s government still exudes a paranoid control over their people
that tends to both restrict people, yet allows criminal activities to flourish with ease. It is
impossible to believe that China’s government will be able to eradicate the business of human
trafficking on its own. China’s massive population and vast landscape makes it very easy for
criminals to run their operations largely undetected. The government needs more than one set of
eyes and ears. NGO’s are a good way of bringing resources and surveillance to fight trafficking.
This also applies to International Organizations, which are severely limited in their abilities to
help trafficking victims. It is because of China’s dislike of outside influences that many
volunteer organizations do not exist in China. Those that do, typically have to remain well
hidden because notice from the government could lead to arrest and deportation.
Providing shelters and centers of rehabilitation are also a very important aspect of
fighting human trafficking. Even though China has attempted to impose and enforce laws to fight
against human trafficking, they are lacking resources to help victims. Of these resources, shelters
and rehabilitation centers for victims are very scarce, yet needed the most. As of 2006, China had
not implemented a national plan to provide shelters for trafficking victims. However, China has
slowly, province by province, built shelters to aid women, especially foreign victims, who
suddenly find themselves homeless after being rescued. The Chinese government has built many
shelters, predominately along the southern border.93 These shelters provide temporary shelter for
trafficking victims and also provide them with medical care. With the help of UNICEF, China’s
government also built a shelter in Yunnan Province that provides shelter to victims temporarily.
In 2005, the Bureau of Public Security of Dongxiang Prefecture also created a shelter called the
92
"Fighting against Trafficking in Women and Children ." All-China Women's Federation. 2006
http://www.womenofchina.cn/Projects_Campaigns/Projects/4991.jsp. (Accessed March 16, 2009).
93
"China." HumanTrafficking.org/China, http://www.humantrafficking.org/countries/china, (Accessed
March 16, 2009).
151
Transitional Center for Rescued Foreign Women and Children.94 This center provides shelter for
predominantly Vietnamese women and children.
It is important to note that while China’s government has made attempts to build shelters
in provinces that are targeted the most by traffickers, many provinces that need help are ignored.
In order for China to adequately fight the rise of human trafficking, they need to take care of
their victims to ensure that they don’t fall into the hands of another trafficker or that they don’t
become traffickers themselves.95 Adequate resources are needed, such as a comprehensive effort
to build shelters in all of China, counseling, medical care, and even job training. Even though
many NGOs have taken it upon themselves, like Crossing Borders, to provide resources to help
human trafficking victims, that should not be necessary. China’s government should take
responsibility to help victims, if only to send the message that the government is more than
willing to provide help and care for women who are being exploited.
Conclusions:
China is a country that has recently come into economic success. Like the rich man that
has acquired his wealth overnight and is consumed by it, China is so focused on working to keep
their newfound monetary success that they think of nothing else. Environmental problems are
brushed aside, the gap between the rich and the poor is pushed under the rug, and the rise of
human trafficking, like everything else, is deemed unimportant. Even though the government has
been promising for years to allocate more time and resources to fight trafficking, ultimately they
never do, worried that money spent on fighting this practice could be better spent elsewhere.
However, it is this way of thinking that has helped human trafficking to thrive in China. Little
government surveillance, compounded with corrupt government officials and a growing need for
women, has made China one of the countries in Asia, with the fastest growing markets of human
trafficking.
Due to the severe lack of women, in 1999, the state press reported that the market of
women was growing 30% each year, estimating that about 10,000 women were trafficked
annually.96 Although it is true that mass migration has affected the Chinese population, such that
large numbers of women are leaving the countryside to the city leaving many men desperate to
find a wife, this alone does not give an adequate explanation for the current trend in bride
buying. Practices such as bride buying occur because of China’s current social environment,
94
United States. Cong. Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Hearing on Human Trafficking in
China.
95
It is very common for women who are victims of human trafficking to later become traffickers
themselves. Even though this phenomenon is very rare within the sphere of bride buying and forced marriages, it is
important to counsel victims in order to prevent the rare possibility of this happening.
96
Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Harsh Chinese Reality Feeds a Black Market in Women ."
The New York Times, 2001. http://www.vachss.com/help_text/styles/archive-print.php, (Accessed March 15, 2009).
152
specifically, laws such as the one child policy and the people’s traditional preference for men,
which makes living as a woman very difficult.
Traditionally, the Chinese believed that sons were better. Sons never left the house, and
were a strong addition to the workload. They were better investments for the future, thus were
treated better, educated better and loved more. When the one-child policy was created in 1979
and parents were suddenly forced to choose between a son and a daughter, there was no
competition. Men always won. Thus daughters were hastily disposed of to make room for the
only child that could exist in a household. It is because of this policy that China now suddenly
lacks women. Compounded with the fact that today, many women are migrating to the city to
find jobs, men, especially men in rural villages, are desperate for women. Hence, the market of
women arose to fill this desperate need. With very few women left in the villages and bride
prices as high as $4,000 in some places, traffickers soon became the viable option to go to for
finding wives.97 It is only until recently however, when the trafficking of women has threatened
to ruin all that is important to the Chinese government, specifically their economic success, that
they have suddenly made an effort to fight against this practice.
Since the report made by the state press in 1999, China’s government has worked to
improve their anti-trafficking efforts. They have successfully launched several awareness
campaigns in rural provinces, have built shelters to give women temporary housing, and have
even begun to train government employees and educate them on the dangers of trafficking. In
October 1997, China’s government even created the first national panel specifically focused on
combating trafficking in women and children. 98 The goal of this panel is to fight trafficking to
extent that they can eventually change their focus from rescuing women to prevention.
However in 2008, China for the fourth year in a row was placed on the Tier 2 Watch List
in the Trafficking of Persons Report. This indicates that although China has improved its efforts,
not enough has been done to show that the government is sincerely interested in eliminating this
practice. Ironically, China in the future will spend more time and money fighting the hold of
trafficking then they would have years ago in prevention.
It is dire, that China’s government realizes the grave consequences that could arise from
the implementation of the one-child policy. As long as this law continues to be enforced in a
society that heavily favors men, China’s population will always suffer through a shortage of
women. This shortage is already becoming apparent today, where sex selected abortions and
abandonment of baby girls have resulted in a disproportionate amount of men to women.
Already, because of this gap between the genders which many critics, including Chinese
officials, deem small, human trafficking has arisen as a way to fill this hole. Although 30 million
97
Elisabeth Rosenthal.
98
"Panel Created in China to Target Trafficking Prevention."
153
men left without wives seems like a trivial problem in a country that has a population of well
over a billion people, imagine twenty or thirty years from now, what China’s population will
look like if the government chooses to ignore the growing imbalance between men and women.
For those who are reading this paper and ask, why should I care, why should China’s
government care? It is important for people to understand that as long as the one-child policy is
enforced, the number of women in China will become fewer and fewer. Without government
intervention, there will come a day when the country will be left with very few women. Then
China will revert from an over populated country, to one that is declining and aging rapidly, with
few young people to support the society. If this idea seems extreme, look to Japan as an example
to verify this. Even though Japan is a very successful country, its population is rapidly declining
and its workforce isn’t sufficient to support the aging society. Today, the Japanese government is
campaigning for families to have more children to prevent a possible population collapse in the
future.
A severe shortage of women could lead to various social problems in Chinese society.
Violence could escalate, including human trafficking, kidnapping and the rape of women. With
fewer women to bear children the population would plunge, which could also affect the
economic success of the country. A drop in the population could also signify a drop in economic
prosperity because there would be a shortage of people to fill the workforce.
The one-child policy was created because the government feared overpopulation would
undermine the economic success of the country. However, replacing one extreme for another
does not solve the problem. In order to avoid problems in the future, China’s government needs
to do more than just simply pass a law regulating how many children a couple has. Not only is
this law cruel and dangerous to women, it creates various problems that threaten to bring about
exactly what the government feared, namely the collapse of China’s economic success.
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