With regard to China, the phenomenon of trafficking is a growing concern. In a UNICEF-backed situation analysis of children and women in China in 1992, it was noted that "occasional abduction of women and children has been reported to still occur in some rural areas, prompting widespread education against the practice and special legislation with severe punishment of individuals who abduct or kidnap women or children."

 In China's 1995 report under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the problem is implied by the recognition that in 1991 the government authorities made a decision "on the severe punishment of criminals abducting or kidnapping girls and children."

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CHINA

Estimates range from 200,000 to 500,000 children. It is believed there is an increasing number of young girls entering the local sex industry and lured to surrounding countries. Girls from the pastoral villages of the minority tribes in Yunnan province in south western China are being tricked by phoney offers of jobs and then being sold into prostitution in Thailand. According to the Chinese police, since 1989 about 5,000 Chinese girls have been lured across the rugged Burmese mountains that separate the two countries and sold as prostitutes. The majority of kidnapped girls are members of the Tai or Akha tribes who inhabit the border region. The Akha are also known as Hani in China. In 1994 the Peking People's Daily reported that more than 10,000 women and children are abducted and sold each year in Sichuan alone. It went on to state that "more than one million prostitutes are serving affluent businessmen and visitors from Taiwan and Hong Kong".

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Laws Regarding Trafficking of Women and Children in China

With regards to China, legal measures emanate from the 1991 decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress which called for action to criminalise the following: "abduction for sale of women and children; kidnap of women and children, kidnap for purposes of blackmail; purchase of abducted and kidnapped women and children; abuse of office to hinder the rescue of abducted and kidnapped women and children." This led to the adoption of a Criminal Law, Article 141 of which provided for sentences against human trafficking. The sentences were increased by the new Criminal Law of 1997 which incriminates the abduction, purchase, sale and delivery of women and children.

There are other laws which target specifically the protection of women and children from abuse. For instance, the 1992 Law of the Protection of Women's Rights prohibits the abduction, trafficking and purchase of women. China's 1991 Protection of Minors Act obliges parents to stop children from engaging in prostitution. China's 1991 Adoption Act forbids the sale of children for adoptions. These were bolstered by the 1994 ministerial notice against illegal immigration for pornographic purposes and the 1996 ministerial notice to screen Chinese children being adopted abroad.

Other laws may contribute to preventing the trap of trafficking. These include various education laws and laws to promote livelihood. For example, in 1986 China passed a law on compulsory education (9 years) which should help to keep children out of the labor market. In 1991 regulations on child labor were issued prohibiting use of child laborers under 16 years of age.

On the policy front, in 1992 China's State Council issued its Program Outline for the Development of China's Children in the 1990s. These are coupled with the National Program of Action for Goals by the Year 2000 in regard to children, under which there are also measures to protect children against parental abuse and child labor.