China executes child traffickers

Two men found guilty of abducting and selling 15 children have been executed in China
 state media reported today. Many of the children taken have yet to be reunited with their families Thousands of children go missing each year in China and the problem is on the rise, although authorities have recently geared up their efforts to tackle the problem. The cultural preference for boys and birth control rules have created a demand for baby boys, but both boys and girls are abducted to work or to beg for gangs, and girls are also taken as wives.

Hu Minghua, 55, and Su Binde, 27, were executed on Thursday morning, the Supreme People's Court said. The crime carries the death penalty in China, but kidnappers are rarely sentenced to death. But since October, China has restarted punishing criminal sentences put on hold until after celebrations for the 60th anniversary of Communist Party rule. Mr Hu was convicted of kidnapping and selling nine children from April 1999 to Oct. 2005. He was put in prison in January 2006. Five of the children, all boys now aged from 3 to 6, have now gone back to their families, but the parents of the remaining ones have not been found. Mr Su had abducted six children between September 2005 to July 2006. Police have rescued five and the sixth is still missing. Su was also convicted of leading six robberies and twelve thefts and kidnapping a taxi driver who escaped but died 10 days later, according to a court statement.

Parents have long complained that the authorities have done little to help when their children have gone missing. But earlier this year Chinese police launched a crackdown on the trafficking of women and children. They say they have rescued around 2,000 children since the campaign began and state media have reported on the ensuing rescues, arrests and in some cases, reunions. The Supreme Court's spokesman Wang Shaonan said the number of cases had risen 11.25% compared with the same period last year, to 1,107 trials.

Li Yongshun’s grandson, Li Hupeng, was snatched from outside their small farmhouse in 2002 when he was 3. Mr Li spent thousands of pounds of his savings and spent three years finding the child. Mr Li told The Times newspaper: “People who do this should all be executed. They have brought so much distress as well as expense to the families. The men who kidnapped Hupeng were sentenced to 20 years and to life and the police said this was fair because the boy wasn’t hurt.”

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children