FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
STATE DEPARTMENT TRAFFICKING REPORT BLAMES CHINA’S “PREVIOUS” ONE CHILD
POLICY
Earlier this week, the United States Department of State issued its annual Trafficking in
Persons (“TIP”) report, ranking China on the Tier 2 Watch List because it is a
“source, destination and transit country” for trafficked persons, and because
the Chinese government, “does not fully comply with the minimum standards for
the elimination of trafficking . . .”
On one hand, the TIP report
heavily implicates China’s One Child Policy in connection with China’s rampant
sexual slavery problem:
“The
Chinese government’s birth limitation policy and a cultural preference for sons
create a skewed sex ratio of 117 boys to 100 girls in China, which may serve to
increase the demand for prostitution and for foreign women as brides for
Chinese men – both of which may be procured by forced or coercion. Women and girls are recruited through
marriage brokers and transported to China, where some are subjected to forced
prostitution or forced labor.”
On the other
hand, the TIP Report mistakenly describes the One Child Policy as a thing of
the past. Referencing a 2014
modification of the Policy, under which the Chinese government allowed couples
with one parent who is an only child to have a second child, the Report states:
Academics
noted the gender imbalance, due to the previous one child policy, could contribute
to crimes of human trafficking in China.
The government’s modification of the birth limitation policy may affect
future demands for prostitution and for foreign women as brides for Chinese
men.
Long a vocal
critic of China’s One Child Policy, Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s
Rights Without Frontiers, stated: “There
is nothing ‘previous’ about the One Child Policy, which is a present,
terrifying reality to the women and families of China. The fact that the Chinese government
tweaked the One Child Policy in 2014 merely allows a relatively small number of
additional families to have a second child. This will not end forced abortion or gendercide in
China. The selective abortion and
abandonment of baby girls is most prevalent in the countryside, where couples
already can have a second child if the first child is a girl.
“Further, the Report’s statement that this minor modification ‘may
affect future demands for prostitution
and for foreign women as brides for Chinese men’ is misleading. Even if the most recent modification were significantly
to improve gender ratios at birth – which it will not -- the impact on sexual
slavery would not be felt for decades to come. What about all the women and girls who are being trafficked
now? The TIP Report does not cite
any effective new initiatives by the CCP to help current victims of sexual
slavery.”
The Report
describes the far reach of sex trafficking in China: “Women and children from neighboring Asian countries,
including Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Mongolia, and the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea (DPRK), as well as from Africa and the Americas, are
subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking in China.”
The Report also
recommends that the Chinese government “investigate, prosecute, and impose
prison sentences on government officials who facilitate or are complicit in
trafficking.” Littlejohn added: “Why does the Chinese government turn a
blind eye to officials who are complicit with human trafficking and sexual
slavery? Do they believe that
sexual slavery is necessary because of the extreme gender imbalance they have
created through the One Child Policy?
This is an abandonment of women who are trafficked as sex slaves in
China.”
The Report also
raises concerns about the fact that “Chinese authorities continued to forcibly
repatriate North Korean refugees by treating them as illegal economic migrants
– despite reports that many North Korean female refugees in China were
trafficking victims . . . [these repatriated refugees] may face severe
punishment, even death.”
“My heart
breaks for the young women and girls who escape the violent brutality of
North
Korea by slipping across the Chinese border, only to find themselves
snapped up
in the sex slave trade.” Littlejohn continued. “These women and girls
are utterly helpless. They can be beaten, raped and sold as
prostitutes or forced brides, but there is nothing they can do about
it. If they are able to escape from their
captors and report their mistreatment to the Chinese authorities, they
may be
repatriated to North Korea, where they may be accused of treason, sent
to
hell-hole forced labor camps, and possibly executed.
“China was
listed as a Tier 3 nation in 2013 – a status it shared with Iran, Sudan and
North Korea. The Chinese
government has not significantly improved its record since that time. China should return to Tier 3 status
immediately.
“Women’s
Rights Without Frontiers’ ‘Save a Girl’ campaign has undercover fieldworkers on
the ground in China, saving girls from gendercide empowering women to keep
their daughters. This is the most
effective way to combat son preference and restore gender ratios in China.”
Learn more
about WRWF’s “Save a Girl” campaign:
Read the State
Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report 2015:
