People’s Republic of China
Country Paper against Trafficking in Women and Children
Presented at Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative
Against Trafficking
(COMMIT)
1. Overview
China has witnessed rapid economic development and social progress since reform and
opening up to the outside world. People’s standard of living keeps rising and the socialist
modernization construction has made remarkable achievement. Chinese government has
attached great importance to protecting rights and interests of women and children and
developed a series of relevant laws, regulations, policies and measures as well as actively
participate in international cooperation against trafficking. China makes great progress in
prevention and combating trafficking in women and children.
China is a country with a huge territory and a large population. One of the
consequences is that there is unbalanced development of society and economy between
regions. Some poor rural residents in remote areas, especially women, with lower education
and without legal knowledge and sensitivity and self-protection capacity are prone to be
abducted and trafficked by the traffickers for forced prostitution, forced marriages etc. In
some rural areas, the phenomenon of people buying women or children to get married or to
carry on the family name exists. Different situations exist for trafficked women. In poor
areas, most of these trafficked women are sold as wives for the old, sickly and disabled
unmarried men. In rich areas, most of the trafficked women are brought into entertainment
business, hair salon, massage parlours and bathhouses or are sold as forced prostitutes.
In recent years, in collaboration with international traffickers, the cases of cross- border
trafficking are growing. It includes trafficking foreign women into China and trafficking
Chinese women out of China. Those who illegally immigrate and are trafficked into China
mainly come from Vietnam, Russia, Korea and Myanmar. Some Chinese women in the
southwest areas are trafficked into countries like Thailand and Malaysia. The purposes of
cross-border trafficking are diverse, ranging from commercial sexual exploitation and
forced marriage, to illegal adoption, forced labor and begging etc.
The enormous profits from trafficking stimulate more and more traffickers to take the
risk of doing this business. In recent years, international human trafficking crime has
become a professional and well-organized trade. Therefore, the main task for Chinese
government and other countries concerned is to crackdown strictly and prevent effectively
trafficking in persons.
2. Policy framework
National policy
China has laid much emphasis on combating trafficking in women and children. Chinese
government developed successively a range of laws, regulations and policy. In 1997, China
started to implement its new criminal law, with important supplementations and revisions to
criminal defense of trafficking. It also added the following crimes to the criminal law: the
crime of trafficking women and children, the crime of buying trafficked women and
children, the crime of mobbing and impeding rescuing trafficked women and children, the
crime of non-rescuing trafficked women and children, the crime of kidnapping women and
children, and the crime of impeding rescuing trafficked women and children. The new law
also augments administrative penalty and enhances the punishment level. In order to
guarantee the implementation and enforcement of the criminal law, in September 1999, the
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Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued its regulations on cases for direct procurate by the
people’s procuratorate. It further defined how cases like non-rescuing of trafficked women
and children or impeding rescuing of trafficked women and children will be treated and
prosecuted by the procurate directly. In December 1999, the Supreme People’s court
enacted the interpretation of relevant articles in dealing with the case of trafficked women.
In 2000, the Ministry of Public Security enacted “suggestions for relevant law and
regulation in combating criminal cases of trafficking women and children”. Furthermore,
China has endorsed a series relevant laws and acts, such as Law of Protection of Rights and
Interests of Women, Labor Law, Law of Protection of the Minor, Law on the Prevention of
Juvenile Delinquency, Marriage Law, Adoption Law, Regulations on Punishing Criminals of
Trafficking and Kidnapping Women and Children etc. All these laws and acts serve as a
powerful basis and legal protection for rights and interests of women and children. For
instance, the Adoption Law stipulates to have penalty on those who kidnap and traffick
children in the name of adoption. In May 2001, the State Council of China issued National
Programme for the Development of Chinese Women (2001-2010) and National Programme
of Action for Child Development (2001-2010), and declared that reducing trafficking crime
and other violation of legal rights of women and children would be put on the agenda as the
major responsibility of protection of women and children.
International conventions
China has attached importance to international cooperation against trafficking in
women and children. The law, policy and regulation formulated in China is in accordance
with the principles and regulations of relevant conventions. China has ratified the
following international conventions: the Convention on Transnational Organized Crime, the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, the ILO Convention on the Worst Forms of Child
Labour.
The relevant Chinese law and regulation conforms to regulation of the Convention on
Transnational Organized Crime. For instance, the criminal law regulates the penalty for the
heads of group of criminals to be punishable by 10 years to life imprisonment, in addition to
fine and forfeiture.
In September 1980, Chinese government ratified the Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and submitted to UN six country
reports of the implementation of CEDAW in China from 1982 to 2003. So far, four of these
reports have been reviewed. CEDAW indicates:“States Parties shall take all appropriate
measures, including legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of
prostitution of women.” On the basis of the regulation, China’s criminal law specifies the
penalty for trafficking women and abducting, kidnapping, and forcing women into
prostitution or selling women for prostitution, and relevant penalty for those who organize
prostitution, force women to prostitution, seduce, harbor and pimp prostitution. All these
penalties are in accordance with CEDAW. Moreover, China’s Constitution, Labor Law, Law
of Protection of Rights and Interests of Women indicate the issues related to eliminating
discrimination against women.
In 1991, Chinese government ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and
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submitted to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the country report of the
implementation of Convention on the Rights of the Child in China in 1995 and 2003. In
1996 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child reviewed the China’s national report and
concluded that the Committee appreciated the efforts made by the Chinese government in
implementation of the CRC. It especially noted the progress in enacting and implementing
relevant acts and regulations to protect the rights of the child. The review report also raised
issues like trafficking children in China. These issues have been addressed accordingly in
the later legislation and judicial practice, for example, in the revised criminal law in 1997.
This revised law indicated that death penalty is not suitable for a minor (including stay of
execution). The CRC states: “States Parties shall take measures to combat the illicit transfer
and non-return of children abroad”, and also “States Parties shall take all appropriate
national, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent the abduction of, the sale of or traffic
in children for any purpose or in any form.” All these regulations have been incarnated in
China. China’s criminal law hands down a rigorous penalty for the criminals of trafficking
in children, buying trafficked children, organizing illegal cross-border migration and
transporting illegal migrants across the border.
The ILO Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour states that the member
countries must take effective actions to forbid and eliminate the worst form of child labour.
Child labour is forbidden in China. The Criminal Law, Labour Law, Law of Protection of
the Minor and revised Regulations of Forbidding Child Labor in 2002 define clearly the age
and concept of child labor, and legal responsibility for employing minors. Chinese
government has enacted relevant regulations with reference to the Convention. The labour
law also prohibits adolescents under 16 years of age to be fully employed. Law of
Protection of the Minor states any organizations or individuals employing workers above 16
years of age and under 18 years of age must follow the national instructions to provide
protections for them in terms of work types, work hours and labor intensity. It is not allowed
to arrange them to do dangerous, poisoning and intensive jobs. The law also defines
relevant punishments and compensatory responsibility for the employers. In December
2002, the revised amendment of a new criminal law was approved by the Standing
Committee of the National People’s Congress, into which the crime of employing child
labor is added.
3. Prevention and protection
Establishing the mechanism of multi-agency collaboration
The National Working Committee on Children and Women under the State Council
(NWCCW) was founded in February 1990. It is responsible for coordinating and promoting
relevant government departments to implement law, regulation and policy-related measures
concerning women and children. NWCCW aims at promoting and protecting rights for
women and children. According to the objective of development agenda for women and
development agenda for children, the NWCCW distributes the responsibilities and duties
for promoting and protecting the rights for women and children among 43 government
ministries/committees and NGOs. For example, the responsibilities of protecting the rights
of women and children, the prohibition of any forms of violence against women have been
assigned to the Ministry of Public Security etc. The responsibility of providing legal aid has
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been assigned to the Ministry of Justice and All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF). The
focus of meetings by the standing committee of NWCCW is to gather working reports on
prevention and combating of trafficking of children and women from these assigned
ministries/committees and working out solutions for relevant work. The NWCCW office as
a standing body is responsible concretely to liaise and coordinate the relevant
ministries/committees and NGOs in charge of prevention and combating of trafficking of
children and women.
In November 2001, some ministries/committees, e.g. the Supreme Court, the Supreme
Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Justice, All-China Women’s
Federation, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, the
Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Health, National
Committee of Population and Family Planning, and National Committee of Industry and
Commerce Administration, jointly established the national coordinating group to protect the
rights and interests of women and children. The coordinating group called focus meetings to
discuss how to prevent trafficking in women and children and the settlement of the rescued
children. The group worked out work-plans and divided work among ministries/committees.
The work-plan made it possible to implement and carry out the relevant law and regulation.
Public education, and service delivery to prevent human trafficking
In China, special attention has been paid in conducting public education on legal
knowledge on prevention and combating of trafficking of children and women. Great efforts
have been made to carry out public education to raise awareness of the high risk populations,
such as adolescent, migrating population, and parents of young children, to enhance their
sensitivity and capacity of preventing trafficking. It is hoped that the awareness about
trafficking in women and children as a crime will strike the heart of the public and
accordingly, the public can actively contribute to prevent and combat human trafficking and
build a supportive environment. In the main destination areas, a lot of work has been done
in terms of regulating and disciplining labor market, and providing training and information
referral to those migrating women to enhance their self-protection capacity on the other
hand. Take Sichuan province as an example. Since 1997, the municipal government of
Chengdu have made efforts in the following aspects: conducting several dozens of publicity
activities in the labor markets, distributing posters and pamphlets to job-hunting women;
regulating labor market management and reinforcing control and administration of the
job-agencies, uncovering illegal agents and preventing job juggling and so on. In the main
source areas, the following endeavors have been made: training courses offered to raise the
legal sensitivity of the villagers, setting up marriage match-making agencies in order to
reduce demand of wife-buying. Simultaneously, the local governments have consolidated
the monitoring and regulating of the labor protection in the trafficking-in areas, reinforced
control over the labor markets, and took actions against illegal job agencies, promoted legal
employment opportunities and supervised the implementation of labor protection laws.
Chinese government and NGOs have conducted actively various activities to prevent
trafficking at different levels, including poverty alleviation, agricultural skills training for
rural women, and re-employment training for laid-off female workers, organizing labor
export, supporting drop-out girls to continue their schooling. Government has enhanced
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supervision and services to migrants and promoted orderly legal employment opportunities
in order to reduce high risk populations for trafficking.
4. Judicial response
Legal framework
A comprehensive legal framework to combat trafficking has come into form in China.
This framework is featured as the criminal law as the cornerstone supplemented by relevant
administrative acts and government departments’ regulations with operative measures (Cf.
part 2. policy framework). However, there is no special law on combating trafficking in
China. Hopefully, as the Chinese government realises the complexity of human trafficking,
it is believed the legislation will be improved in the course of practice.
Arrest and prosecution
The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) has played a key role in conducting national fight
against trafficking in women and children in the past decades. From 1991 to 2000, MPS
organized four focused campaigns to combat trafficking women and children in the selected
areas across the country. From 2001 to 2003, the police cracked down on 20,360 cases of
trafficking women and children, arrested 22,018 criminals, and rescued 42,215 trafficked
women and children. At the same time, the local procuratorate approved 7,185 arrest cases
of trafficking in women and children and arresting 13995 suspects, approved 226 arrest
cases of buying trafficked women and children and arresting 416 suspects. 8,442 cases of
trafficking in women and children were brought to court by public prosecutions, with
15,005 defendants involved. 177 cases of buying trafficked women and children were
brought to court by public prosecutions with 358 defendants involved.
5. Support to the victims
Chinese government has paid more attention to support and assist the victims of
trafficking. In Kunming (Yunnan province), Xuzhou (Jiangsu province) and Chengdu
(Sichuan province), three centers of transfer, training and rehabilitation for trafficked
women and children were set up. It provides services for more than 2000 trafficked women,
accommodating and rehabilitating them physically and psychologically. The center is
responsible to help them to return home safely. In the focused campaigns of combating
traffickers and rescuing trafficked women and children in 2000, the MPS used the DNA
testing to ensure that children were correctly reunited with their parents for the first time
and helped 513 children to reunite with their natal parents.
Another way for supporting victims in China is to use the socialized rights protecting
agencies to provide legal aid and service to these women and children. By the end of May
2003, there were more than 8000 legal aid centers or legal counseling centers in 330
cities/prefectures over 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities all over the
country.
6. International cooperation
As trafficking is a national, regional and global issue, international cooperation is of great
importance in the fight against this grave problem. Chinese government has been involved
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in a range of important trafficking-related international forums, such as Bangkok
Declaration on Irregular Migration; Asia Pacific Consultation; Manila Process; Bali
Ministerial Meetings on Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling; Asian Regional Initiative
Against Trafficking in Women and Children (ARIAT); and Regional Commitment and
Action Plan of the East Asia and Pacific Region against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children and so on.
By the end of May 2004, China has signed extradition treaties with 21 countries, and
signed criminal justice assistance treaties with 32 countries. On the basis of the above
conventions, China cooperated with other countries to extradite criminals back to China for
punishment. China MPS is also involved with direct enforcement cooperation with foreign
countries. MPS signed 72 agreements on enforcement cooperation with concerned agencies
of 41 countries. In Mekong Sub-Region, China has bilateral agreements on working-level
cooperation with Vietnam, Cambodian, Laos, and Thailand, focusing mainly on cooperation
in combating human trafficking.
In terms of law enforcement, China liaises closely with Interpol and its member
countries to exchange information on cases, rescuing victims, as well as hunting criminals.
For instance, in 2004, China MPS cooperated closely with Malaysia police and successfully
arrested criminals and rescued 26 Chinese women who were trafficked into Malaysia for
forced prostitution. China actively participated in the enforcement cooperation with
neighboring countries. On a case-by-case basis, MPS has worked with Police from Vietnam,
Thailand and Myanmar. To further strengthen cooperation, China and Vietnam have come
together at senior officials level to discuss information sharing, joint repatriation
mechanisms, joint situational assessments and communication campaigns.
China is actively involved in collaborative projects of prevention and combating of
trafficking with UN agencies and NGOs. For instance, Chinese agencies have collaborated
with UNICEF, ILO-IPEC, UNIAP, SC-UK to implement projects.
China MPS jointly with All-China Women’s Federation and UNICEF conducted the
project of Anti-Trafficking and Violence Against Women and Children. Since 1999, 15
training courses were offered to policemen who were involved in combating trafficking in
10 selected provinces covering a total of ten thousand trainees. In 8 focused trafficking
provinces, a broad range of public education programs were implemented with more than
100,000 beneficiaries. In October 2002, the pilot project of eliminating trafficking, the Zero
Tolerance campaign on trafficking was initiated in Xinye (Henan province). With the efforts
of multi-departments participation and collaboration, the project aims at reducing the
trafficking women and children to the minimum level. ACWF, MPS and UNICEF's Project
to Combat Trafficking and Violence Against Children and Women developed the
Anti-Trafficking Logo, and was launched in China in March 2004, with an effort of attract
the public attention to caring, understanding and supporting the work of combating
trafficking of women and children in China. The joint communication campaign to combat
cross border trafficking between China and Vietnam was launched on 3 June 2004. Separate
launching ceremonies were also respectively conducted.
ACWF in collaboration with UNICEF conducted a pilot project in Renshou, Sichuan to
prevent trafficking. The project included the following elements: the comprehensive
measures, social mobilization, mass media monitoring, financial support to related
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communities and families, helping the victims to reintegrate into the mainstream social life,
initiating dialogue between governments among the neighboring countries. It aims at
helping to rescue repatriate and re-integrate victims back to their normal life. Innovative
approaches were adopted in this project, for instance, through participatory approach, the
beneficiaries and former trafficking victims are invited to participate together in meetings,
project activities and in project implementation. Some former victims have been consulted
on the effectiveness of the IEC materials.
ACWF works closely with ILO-IPEC on a project in Yunnan Province titled ILO
Mekong Sub-Regional Project to Combat Trafficking in Children and Women. The project
offers gender sensitivity training and agricultural skills training to the local people,
providing micro-credit loans to improve the poor life of the local women, and enhance the
schooling rate for girls, and ultimately to reduce the thoughtless migration of women in the
local communities. It aims at improving protection for women, develop safer migration
channels and promote labor skills to provide economic alternatives to migration.
ACWF and MPS in Yunnan and Guangxi cooperated with SC-UK implemented a
community-based project to prevent trafficking women and children. After the successful
implementation of the first stage, the project spread out for a larger coverage. The activities
in the second phase are currently being implemented. The target population include both
domestic trafficking and cross-border trafficking to the Mekong Sub-Region, with an
addition of helping victims to safely return home and start a new life. The target
population is more children and youth centered.
The NWCCW office actively participated in UN Inter-Agency Project on Human
Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (UNIAP). It makes full use of its function of
coordinating among relevant government departments, UN agencies and NGOs, sharing
information and resources to with relevant key agencies and organizations and establish a
multi-agencies collaboration mechanism in prevention and combating of trafficking of
children and women. In the first phase, a baseline survey was conducted in selected sites in
Yunnan and Guangxi, IEC materials have been printed and distributed to the local
communities. A seminar of combating cross-border trafficking in women and children was
held in Guangxi in cooperation with MPS. In 2004, it co-organized with UNDP the first
Inter Agency Seminar on anti-trafficking. It brought together all key agencies from the
government, the NGOs, and the UN agencies in China. This was a significant step forward
to strengthen cooperation between projects on anti-trafficking within China. Another 5
provinces and multi-agencies meeting for experience exchange of preventing trafficking
was held in Yunnan. The focus task in 2004 for the project is to coordinate and prepare for
participating in the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking. The
purpose of this initiative is to encourage the 6 participating countries (Vietnam, Thailand
and Myanmar, Cambodian, Laos and China) to come to the agreement in preventing and
fighting against trafficking, protecting rights of the victims of trafficking, and take common
actions in dealing with cross-border human trafficking in the region.
China has benefited a lot from experiences of international collaborative projects on
prevention and combating of trafficking of children and women in the past years. The staff
involved in the projects have broadened their views and accumulated experiences and
knowledge in human trafficking. The public has developed a clear sense of combating
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trafficking, both at the community and family levels. The governmental officers on different
levels have improved their capacity and understanding of combating trafficking.
Trafficking in persons has been a well-organized profitable business for the traffickers. It is
a grave violation of rights and interests of women and children and seriously harm their
physical and psychological health. The solutions to this grave problem need the domestic
efforts as well as international cooperation. Chinese government takes it as the
government’s duty and responsibility to prevent and prohibit domestic and cross-border
human trafficking and fulfils its commitments to the international community. Positive
measures will continue to be initiated in China, including alleviating poverty, increasing
chances for employment, improving legislation and law enforcement, public education, and
building a long-term social mechanism of preventing trafficking. Chinese government hopes
to develop more cooperation with neighboring countries, especially judicial cooperation
with the countries in Mekong Sub-Region in terms of sharing information, resources,
experiences and lessons. More efforts will be made in developing more bilateral and
multilateral cooperation, to jointly cope with the trafficking of human beings.
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