BEIJING - THE number of Chinese women trafficked overseas and forced into prostitution has risen amid an increasing presence of international crime groups, a senior police officer said.
The women, mostly from poor rural areas, were trafficked mainly for forced marriage or forced prostitution, Chen Shiqu, director of the anti-human trafficking office under the Ministry of Public Security, said.
'But there has been a growing trend for organised transnational human trafficking crime groups to target Chinese women for forced prostitution in foreign countries," Mr Chen told China Daily.
Huge profits for organised crime groups allied to poor awareness among rural Chinese women about the dangers of human trafficking contributed to a growing number of international cases.
There is an increasing need for more international cooperation as trafficking in other countries can involve various organised crime groups, he said.
China has signed the Mekong River Sub-regional Cooperation Anti-trafficking Memo with Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia and set up an annual senior-official meeting mechanism to help curb international trafficking.
Source: ST Online/CHINA DAILY/ANN
Monday, January 24, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Rise in abortions among young women in China
XI'AN - THE leaf-strewn median on Eternal Peace Road hides a grim secret: Numerous tiny fetuses lie in unmarked graves dug by women from the abortion clinic across the street.
The staff at the small clinic in the heart of this ancient city don't bury most of the fetuses - only those that have reached three or four months, when they clearly resemble miniature babies. It is a secret hiding in plain sight, much like the rising rate of abortions among young, unmarried women in China.
While comprehensive data are hard to come by, official figures show abortions are increasing, and Chinese media and experts say many, if not most, of the abortion-seekers are young, single women.
That's a change from the past, when abortion was used mainly to enforce the government's one child per couple limit.
Today, students are clearly a client base: The Beijing Modern Women's Hospital offers a government-subsidised 'Safe & Easy A+' discount abortion package at 880 yuan (S$168). Others advertise in college handbooks.
According to a government tally, 9.2 million abortions were performed in 2008, up from 7.6 million in 2007. But the count only includes hospitals, and state media report the total could be as high as 13 million. If accurate, that would give China among the highest abortion rates in the world.
Source: ST Online/AP
The staff at the small clinic in the heart of this ancient city don't bury most of the fetuses - only those that have reached three or four months, when they clearly resemble miniature babies. It is a secret hiding in plain sight, much like the rising rate of abortions among young, unmarried women in China.
While comprehensive data are hard to come by, official figures show abortions are increasing, and Chinese media and experts say many, if not most, of the abortion-seekers are young, single women.
That's a change from the past, when abortion was used mainly to enforce the government's one child per couple limit.
Today, students are clearly a client base: The Beijing Modern Women's Hospital offers a government-subsidised 'Safe & Easy A+' discount abortion package at 880 yuan (S$168). Others advertise in college handbooks.
According to a government tally, 9.2 million abortions were performed in 2008, up from 7.6 million in 2007. But the count only includes hospitals, and state media report the total could be as high as 13 million. If accurate, that would give China among the highest abortion rates in the world.
Source: ST Online/AP
Friday, January 7, 2011
Philanthropist jailed for raping and molesting children
The founder of a children's home in China has been found guilty of raping, molesting and indecent assaulting underage girls.
Francis Lee Kwok-wah, 49, was sentenced to eight years jail on Thursday.
He was said to have turned an 11–year-old girl into his sex slave in 2005 until she left the home.
He had also fondled the breasts of another girl, who is 18 now.
Lee in a photo session with a boy from the home
Lee, a Hong Kong citizen, established the home for orphans and children from needy families in 2003.
It has 27 live-in children including 20 girls. Most of its funding is from Hong Kong donors.
Lee visited the home two to three times a year for one or two weeks at a time, and it was during these visits that he committed the crimes.
Apart from the two victims, Lee was also said to have sneaked into the rooms and molested the girls while they were asleep.
Investigators have a list of some 10 names, but most of them refused to testify and others could not be located.
The scandal was exposed when some children repeatedly complained to two social workers of Lee's behaviour.
The children's home was closed following the arrest of Lee, and the children were sent to boarding schools.
Lee, a polio patient, is married with two daughters.
Source: Ming Pao/Daili chilli
Francis Lee Kwok-wah, 49, was sentenced to eight years jail on Thursday.
He was said to have turned an 11–year-old girl into his sex slave in 2005 until she left the home.
He had also fondled the breasts of another girl, who is 18 now.
Lee in a photo session with a boy from the home
Lee, a Hong Kong citizen, established the home for orphans and children from needy families in 2003.
It has 27 live-in children including 20 girls. Most of its funding is from Hong Kong donors.
Lee visited the home two to three times a year for one or two weeks at a time, and it was during these visits that he committed the crimes.
Apart from the two victims, Lee was also said to have sneaked into the rooms and molested the girls while they were asleep.
Investigators have a list of some 10 names, but most of them refused to testify and others could not be located.
The scandal was exposed when some children repeatedly complained to two social workers of Lee's behaviour.
The children's home was closed following the arrest of Lee, and the children were sent to boarding schools.
Lee, a polio patient, is married with two daughters.
Source: Ming Pao/Daili chilli
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Chinese children caught in lead poisoning scare
Twenty-four school children in eastern China have been taken to hospital with suspected lead poisoning from nearby battery factories.
The official Xinhua news agency said that at least 200 children in the area had elevated lead levels.
It said the authorities had shut two battery factories in Huaning county in the eastern province of Anhui.
China is the largest producer and consumer of lead for batteries, cars and electric bikes.
The children sent to hospital were aged between nine months and 16 years old.
Those affected came from homes close to battery factories, despite laws prohibiting factories from being located within 500m (1,600ft) of residential areas.
Xinhua reported that the Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital had tested about 280 children from Gaohe Township in Huaning county for lead poisoning since late December.
Most had been diagnosed with high blood lead levels, said Cheng Bangning, deputy director of the hospital's micro-elements testing laboratory.
"We can draw a clear conclusion that the lead poisoning was caused by the lead pollution of the battery plants," said Zhang Gong, director of the hospital's child healthcare department.
Excessive amounts of lead in the blood can cause damage to the digestive, nervous and reproductive systems, and also stomach aches, anaemia and convulsions.
"My son is now very cranky and restless. He yells a lot," Xinhua quoted Huang Dazhai, the father of a five-year-old boy, as saying.
The boy was found to have 330.9 micrograms of lead per litre of blood.
A level of 100mg per litre is considered enough to impair brain development in children.
Source: BBC News
The official Xinhua news agency said that at least 200 children in the area had elevated lead levels.
It said the authorities had shut two battery factories in Huaning county in the eastern province of Anhui.
China is the largest producer and consumer of lead for batteries, cars and electric bikes.
The children sent to hospital were aged between nine months and 16 years old.
Those affected came from homes close to battery factories, despite laws prohibiting factories from being located within 500m (1,600ft) of residential areas.
Xinhua reported that the Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital had tested about 280 children from Gaohe Township in Huaning county for lead poisoning since late December.
Most had been diagnosed with high blood lead levels, said Cheng Bangning, deputy director of the hospital's micro-elements testing laboratory.
"We can draw a clear conclusion that the lead poisoning was caused by the lead pollution of the battery plants," said Zhang Gong, director of the hospital's child healthcare department.
Excessive amounts of lead in the blood can cause damage to the digestive, nervous and reproductive systems, and also stomach aches, anaemia and convulsions.
"My son is now very cranky and restless. He yells a lot," Xinhua quoted Huang Dazhai, the father of a five-year-old boy, as saying.
The boy was found to have 330.9 micrograms of lead per litre of blood.
A level of 100mg per litre is considered enough to impair brain development in children.
Source: BBC News
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
China has fake wine, tofu... and now eggs
BEIJING - CHINA looks set to start the new year struggling with a food safety problem that it just cannot seem to overcome.
From fake wine and bleached mushrooms to chemicals in hot pots and counterfeit tofu, the country has been dogged by multiple food scandals in recent weeks, all coming after melamine-tainted milk killed six babies and made 300,000 ill in 2008.
In one of the latest stings, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) uncovered the process behind the making of fake eggs - a persistent practice that is dangerous because of the chemicals used.
Local media followed up with reports of rampant Do-It-Yourself DVDs being sold online that provide 'lessons' on how to make fake eggs. The disks are sold for 500 yuan (S$100) each.
The fake eggs, which are sold as the real thing for anything from 0.5 yuan each, cost only 0.05 yuan to produce, several times cheaper than real ones.
The series of scandals has angered experts and consumers.
***
Making a fake egg as easy as 1-2-3
ACCORDING to reports in the Chinese media, this is how to make a fake egg:
1. Start with the yolk
Put sodium alga acid in a beaker full of water and stir. Add some calcium chloride powder. The mixture will become as yellow as an egg yolk. Pour the mixture into a half-sized table tennis ball and shake. It soon takes on a spherical shape resembling a yolk.
2. Add the white
Drop the fake yolk into a basin of colourless sodium alga acid and shake. Within minutes, a fake egg appears. It looks like a peeled preserved egg.
3. Finish off with the shell
A shell is made from calcium oxide, stearic acid and edible paraffins. After it is constructed, the fake egg is left alone and untouched to prevent cracking.
From fake wine and bleached mushrooms to chemicals in hot pots and counterfeit tofu, the country has been dogged by multiple food scandals in recent weeks, all coming after melamine-tainted milk killed six babies and made 300,000 ill in 2008.
In one of the latest stings, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) uncovered the process behind the making of fake eggs - a persistent practice that is dangerous because of the chemicals used.
Local media followed up with reports of rampant Do-It-Yourself DVDs being sold online that provide 'lessons' on how to make fake eggs. The disks are sold for 500 yuan (S$100) each.
The fake eggs, which are sold as the real thing for anything from 0.5 yuan each, cost only 0.05 yuan to produce, several times cheaper than real ones.
The series of scandals has angered experts and consumers.
***
Making a fake egg as easy as 1-2-3
ACCORDING to reports in the Chinese media, this is how to make a fake egg:
1. Start with the yolk
Put sodium alga acid in a beaker full of water and stir. Add some calcium chloride powder. The mixture will become as yellow as an egg yolk. Pour the mixture into a half-sized table tennis ball and shake. It soon takes on a spherical shape resembling a yolk.
2. Add the white
Drop the fake yolk into a basin of colourless sodium alga acid and shake. Within minutes, a fake egg appears. It looks like a peeled preserved egg.
3. Finish off with the shell
A shell is made from calcium oxide, stearic acid and edible paraffins. After it is constructed, the fake egg is left alone and untouched to prevent cracking.
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