Inside China Today

Inside China Today – Thursday 8th October

- Up to 1 million women trafficked for sex in Guangdong

- Cities and schools in lockdown for national holiday

- Quake victims miss family during Mid-Autumn festival

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Up to 1 million women trafficked for sex in Guangdong

Human trafficking is a serious problem in the 21st century. According to HumanTrafficking.org, in China, women and children are trafficked for sexual and labor exploitation in Malaysia, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Europe, Canada, Japan, Italy, Burma, Singapore, South Africa, and Taiwan.

Chinese website Boxun,net has reported on human trafficking in Guangdong Province. According to information supplied by a variety of sources, the Family Planning Office, FPO, in Guangdong has recruited thugs and ruffians to carry out raids, as well as fine and arrest people. The website report says the thugs are not paid by the Family Planning Office. According to the site, the thugs take advantage of the fact that the Family Planning Department is never punished by higher authorities, and engage in human trafficking,

Boxun.net says that young women who moved from rural areas to work in the cities are abducted by those thugs and gang-raped repeatedly until they succumb to prostitution. Some women have escaped and reported the situation to the police, only to be arrested for prostitution and sent to a labour camp.

A 2006 US Department of Human Trafficking Report states that some local officials are complicit in trafficking, including village leaders who sought to prevent police from rescuing victims. Boxun.net said that the thugs from the Family Planning Office offer young women and money to local police on a regular basis.

The HumanTracfficking.org website says that China hasn’t adopted a comprehensive law to criminalise all forms of human trafficking. However the criminal code criminalizes forced prostitution, abduction, and commercial sexual exploitation of girls under the age of 14. The penalty could be death. I ask our listeners if that’s good enough?

According to the investigation, an FPO on the outskirts of Guangzhou and Shenzhen has jurisdiction over 200 -300 thousand migrant workers. In this region, as many as 1000 women were gang-raped and injured. Based on this, Boxun.net estimated that victims in Guangdong could reach up to 100 thousand per year.

Human trafficking began in the region in the early 90’s. Since then, at least 1 million women have been victimised, the report says. Women who died during gang-rape were cremated by authorities. Their families were often told they died because of complications during abortion procedures.

Victims and families have no hope of justice because their cases are rejected by the Communist Party courts. Public outrage in the Guangdong region among peasant workers has reached on all time high.

(http://humantrafficking.org/countries/china)

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Cities and schools in lockdown for national holiday

Many universities in the Hebei province as well as other education institutions have closed its doors in an attempt to halt the spread of the highly contagious H1N1 swine flu virus. In conjunction to this, all major traffic routes around Beijing and surrounding cities have been heavily guarded during the week of the October 1st national holiday, and people with fever-like symptoms were barred from entrance to Beijing.

According to Mr Wong from Xingtai City of Hebei Province, guard stations were set up at major traffic routes to question all those who wished to travel to the capital. Numerous petitioners were arrested through questioning, and people with suspected H1N1 symptoms were refused entry.

Mr Wong said (recording) “Every major traffic route has been guarded with police officers, which were set up by the local police stations. They questioned people in every passing vehicle in order to be on the lookout for “suspicious characters”, such as appellants, or Falun Gong practitioners. They also check for those suffering flu symptoms, or taking medication for flu symptoms. The atmosphere in Hebei City is very tight at the moment.”

Mr Wong also said, during the long weekend holiday at the beginning of October, schools with reported H1N1 cases were all halted. High schools and tertiary institutions also stopped classes to prevent the spread of the virus amongst the students. Primary schools with no reported cases continued classes. Accurate figures of confirmed cases are much higher than the numbers reported by officials, and the correct figures are not being revealed to external sources. As of October 4, the official confirmed cases of H1N1 in Hebei were reported to be 184.

After 11 confirmed cases of H1N1, Hengshui High School in Hebei city was sealed off by police on September 23rd. with at least 1000 students quarantined . According to Mr Jiang from Hengshui, all the schools in the city did not resume normal classes until October 6th.

Mr Jiang said, (recording) “All the kindergartens, primary and high schools in Hengshui city have been on an extended holidays, and finally returned to class on October 6th. Originally we heard that there were confirmed cases of swine flu in Hengshui High School, where people suffered from fevers. The school is now under curfew.”

According to a staff member at the Oriental University City in Hebei, Ms Yan, most students who caught the virus have been treated and cured of the disease, while healthy students have all returned home on leave. She said all school gates would be under heavy security before the epidemic is cleared, as well as this the schools are also recording the body temperatures of the students before they return home each day.

Wenhong; Xiwen and Perry Luo of the SOH Radio Network.

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Quake victims miss family during Mid-Autumn festival

Another Mid-Autumn Festival has passed since the Sichuan Earthquake. Victims who lost their loved ones felt especially sad during the family festival.

A Mr. Yu said that the quake took everything he had. His children died in the very poorly built school buildings. He had hoped to obtain justice and reasonable compensation, but his and other parents’ appeals fell on deaf ears.

Mr. Yu (recording): “After the quake I lost my home and everything. My wife and children died. The house collapsed. Three died in my family. The government gave 800 Yuan for each death in the family, but I did not claim. I went to the township government hoping for compensation. However, all appellants were driven away without any hearing from the leader.”

A Ms. Qiu, whose children died in the tremor, said (recording), “It’s tough. All these victims are the same. But it is more difficult for a family like ours. At the time I was in Beichuan, at the towns centre. Three died in our family. Words can not describe what I felt then! We had to start over again with housing and raising our children. Right now my husband is the only one earning an income, and we are living in a board house.”

A Mr. Wang said (recording), “Six died in our family, my wife, two children and three nieces. The school buildings were not sturdy, and now my whole family is ruined. We ordinary people are living in hardship.”

Recently, Type A flu was discovered in Sichuan schools. Many schools are now sealed off. A parent of a Beichuan middle-school student, Mr. Yang, complained (recording), “The Mianyang Changhong Training Centre set up board houses, and Beichuan Middle School students all live there. The conditions are appalling. A dozen children share one bedroom of roughly twenty square metres. The grass is tall, and it doesn’t look like a school. There are lots of mosquitoes too. The children have not come home since they reported to school on the 12th of August. The school does not allow them. Many in the school had fevers, and phone calls can not go through these days. Teachers do not allow them to use phones.”

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