The Chinese authorities have shut a series of online chat groups that were used to organise deals to trade babies for cash.
The chat groups, on the Chinese instant messaging platform QQ, were used by people saying they were parents advertising their babies for illegal adoption. Buyers in turn stated what kind of child they were looking to purchase and posted money offers.
The groups cost 10 yuan (£1.15p) to join and were closed last week, the Jiankang Shibao newspaper reported. The internet authorities said they had “violated official rules”.
Before the shutdown members posted details of their location, whether they wanted to buy or sell a baby and for the former, their preferred gender of a potential adopted child. Orders for unborn babies could also be placed.
One message in a group read: “I am an 18-year-old girl with a two month-old baby of perfect physical health. Anyone willing to give me 30,000 yuan (£3,400), the baby will be yours.” Some couples offered up to 70,000 yuan for a baby.
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In China only orphans, abandoned children with parents who cannot be found, and children whose parents cannot care for them due to extreme circumstances can be adopted legally. Those eligible for adoption must be under the age of 14.
Many of those turning to the chat groups to find babies were probably put off legal adoption by the cumbersome nature of doing it through official channels. Tough regulation makes it hard to be approved as an adopter.
Last September the online Chinese newspaper Sixth Tone reported on the existence of a 470-strong QQ chat group called “Home to Fulfill Your Dream”, which matched couples looking to buy babies with parents willing to sell. Some couples in the group said they had waited years in vain trying to adopt legally.
One 26-year-old man in the group said he was offering his unborn child for adoption because the baby had been diagnosed with a birth defect, and he could not afford to pay the 20,000 yuan medical costs to treat the baby.
The intentions of those offering babies in groups such as these are incredibly hard to verify, though. The money and the groups’ unregulated nature make them attractive propositions for child-traffickers. Chinese state media said that as many as 20,000 children are trafficked in the country each year, and about 200,000 children go missing.
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Many of those who used the groups said that they wanted to buy baby boys but sellers tended to offer girls. China has a gender imbalance of about 118 boys born for every 100 girls, and it is thought that many baby girls are abandoned each year in the country due to boys being favoured.