Tuesday, October 07, 2008

A Chinese heartbreaker

I REALLY LIKE ALJAZEERA — beats the hell out of Fox news. Covers areas that mainline North American newsnets seem to ignore.

And it seems that child abduction is turning into a nasty problem.

China is struggling to cope with a wave of child abductions which sees more than 200 babies and toddlers being stolen every day, according to some estimates.

It is a lucrative business in which an abducted girl child can fetch $1,200 and a boy anything up to $5,000, more than the average annual salary in urban China.

"Where they end up, it is purely speculation a lot of the times, but a lot the anecdotal evidence seems to show that they go to families who are really wanting to have a boy child.

"Girls who are trafficked for illegal adoption are generally because families are looking for future wives, they want to raise girl children as future wives for their boys, and also to look after the families."

Other children end up abroad after being sold for foreign adoptions or into slavery.

Desperate parents put up posters of their missing children

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