The Next Step Towards Trafficking in Women in China
This video started off the same as many other charity videos on TikTok, with light music and cheerful mood. Everything changed when a woman appeared in the phone camera, with thin clothings far from adequate for the freezing temperature, mumbling and shivering slightly. A heavy chain ties her to a wall of a doorless shed. This video exploded on the internet, with billions of people concerned about her. To quell the argument, the local government quickly released a statement: Her name was Yang; she was locked up because she had unpredictable violent behaviors; she married Dong in 1998; they had eight children together. Contrary to the hope of the official, the statement sparks more questions: how did she give birth to eight children under the strict “one child policy” (just lifted in 2016)? Has she been abused or sold under coercion? As internet users were still demanding answers, more disturbing stories emerged: there were a lot of similar domestic cases in which women were kidnapped and forced into marriage. Human trafficking has long been a major social issue in mainland China, undermining the country’s stability. (Chen, 2000) 7,539, 5,599, 3,225, and 2,499 females were kidnapped and sold in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 respectively. (Zhang, 2006) 9,165 cases of trafficking in women in 2010. (Information Office of the State Council, 2011) From 2016 to 2020, courts at all levels across the country concluded 3,245 crimes of abducting and trafficking in women and children. Information Office of the State Council, 2020) The misfortune of Yang aroused the debate about relevant penalties. Voices arguing against raising penalties believe that drastic law reform cannot achieve much impact as trafficking prevails in rural areas. From my perspective, the Chinese government should raise the penalty with special focus on buyers and local officials. Only in this way may we be able to hold the government accountable for actually enforcing all laws and regulations and save these women from their misery.
The buyers market contributes to the persisting trafficking in China. Traditionally, only men are qualified to be the heir and carry on the heritage of the family, while women are of less value in terms of heirship. In 1981, the One-Child policy, allowing each family to give birth to one child, exacerbated the favor for male and discrimination against female infants. Families developed a variety of methods to secure male progeny, such as “gender-selective abortions, infantilizing baby girls, refusing to register hukou(household registry) for early born female children, and the outright abandoning or selling of female children.”(Arnold and Liu, 1986) As a result, according to China’s 2020 national census, the ratio of male vs female is now 105:100, meaning there are 34.9 million more males than females. This increasing number of bachelor males has provided a huge potential buyers market.(Wang, 2005) As an old Chinese saying goes “男大当婚” [Men should get married whenever he is old enough], establishing a family is seen as an indispensable part of life. So, single men feel pressured to find a wife and have a child. However, these men, who struggle out a life as farmers, have little skills and are mostly illiterate. It is quite difficult for them to marry a local woman because their families are typically impoverished. (Li & Wan, 1998) Because of their lack of education and understanding of the law, some of them still believe in the traditional thought that purchasing women as wifes (concubines in ancient China) is a natural behavior.(Zhao, 2003) Thus, they are inclined to purchase wives from others, resulting in a booming buyer’s market and more trafficking in women. (Cui, Cheng, & Zhong, 2000) Since it is now a consensus that human trafficking is a modern equivalent of slavery and a horrendous violation of basic rights, the Chinese government also attempted to eliminate human trafficking.
Since its establishment in 1949, the People’s Republic of China has adopted plenty of laws and regulations focused on prohibiting and penalizing trafficking, as well as launching several national and regional rescue campaigns. From 1979 to 1991, the Ministry of Justice gradually raised the penalty of selling women and children from five years in prison to death penalty at most. When it comes to the aspect of campaign, the authorities firstly attempted to address the problem within the national unit. More than once, the State Council, the Public Security Ministry, All-China Women’s Federation, and other relevant authorities have issued statements and notices to guide anti-crime operations in various provinces, such as the “Notice about Combating Trafficking in Women and Children Unswervingly According to the law”.(1987&1989) From 1988–2000, the government conducted ten nationwide campaign against trafficking. In 1999, the Chinese government finally decided to open a new window of opportunity: going international. On April 23, the Public Security Ministry and the United Nations Children’s Fund signed an agreement on the “Cooperative Program on Combating Trafficking in Women and Children”(1999). Launched in Beijing, this agreement enables China to take a step further and work much more closely with the UN in terms of social mobilization, propaganda, establishing transfer centers, and carrying out social analysis. Apart from addressing existing crimes, the Office of the State Council issued an action plan in 2013 (which was renewed in 2021) to better educate the public and prevent women from being abducted. The guideline includes subjects such as standardizing career fairs and educating women in high-risk age groups. From all three types of regulations above (Law, local/international campaign, crime prevention guidelines), we may come to the conclusion that China has always been quite firm and active on eliminating human trafficking. If so, why did trafficking persist till now?
To answer this question, there is a fact worth mentioning: No buyer, no trafficker. Current laws and regulations appear to be overly tolerant towards the buyer while condemning the traffickers. Even with the latest modification in 1991, there is only a 3 year prison sentence at most for buyers. Buyer and seller, three years and death penalty, the sentences clearly do not match.(Luo, 2022) The criminal law hits the former much less harshly. Culturally, the buyers’ figures were sometimes glorified in the media. In Yang’s story especially, when she was chained and uncovered her husband Dong had fashioned himself as a model father of eight children. “He posted daily videos of himself dressing his children or feeding them from a giant wok on several social media accounts he ran to generate charitable donations.” (Feng, 2022)Even after the misfortune of Yang was unveiled, the local government branded him as a generous person who “安置” [kindly provided shelter for] this “schizophrenic street beggar”. (Feng, 2022) This unusually high tolerance makes the locals even less aware that their behavior is unjust and illegal. To reverse this thought, let’s take a look at how the U.S. government solves this issue.
Similarly, the U.S. also finds trafficking troubling, but after the cases were exposed or reported , the police acted immediately in accordance with their standardized process. Victims were rescued, and the offenders were soon accused and brought to court. Every crime the offender committed would be considered, so “some prisoners were arrested and sentenced to 1,000 years in prison”(Rong 2022). These extreme cases and other moderate cases conveys a clear message: purchasing women is a felony crime and is not less severe than kidnapping women. As suggested by the U.S. government, China should “criminalize all forms of sex trafficking and labor trafficking as defined under international law.” (Department of state, 2021) Raising penalties could serve as a warning and prevent further transactions of women. (Luo, 2022)
Simply adding penalties sounds like the best solution, however, the key issue is not just how high the penalty is set on paper, but rather the probability of the accusation and the strength of the actual law enforcement. When the benefit of purchasing women is large enough and becomes a rigid need, and the probability of being severely punished is small enough, even if the punishment in law is increased to life imprisonment or death penalty, it will have little effect. (Che, 2022) Currently, most buyers would qualify for probation as long as they are cooperative and did not attempt to prevent the victim from being rescued. According to the journalist from Hongxingshendu, among the 400 adjudications on buyers, 310 of them were granted probation. (2022) For example, 2020 Wan 16 Xing Zhong №384 document shows that Cao, the defendant, was sentenced to one year and six months in jail and two years of probation. “(The offender) was granted a reduced penalty in line with the law for truly confessing his crime and voluntarily admitting guilt and accepting punishment,” according to the court’s statement. Cao meets the requirements for “community correction”, which is basically doing community service. Like Cao, most buyers end up with community services rather than actual prison sentences. Based on this information, we may also infer that the government feared that harsh punishment would not be welcomed by the locals. As stated by Che,“Expecting the local investigators, who have the same historical and cultural background as these villagers, to strike hard can only be an unrealistic ideal.” (2022) Since those buyers were originally part of a local acquaintance network, the investigators have no strong motive to identify rape, detention, and other serious crimes and is very likely to finally settle with the light punishment of the purchasing behavior, even under the pressure of media exposure. In the worst scenario, raising a severe sentence or even a death sentence on paper for the act of purchasing ONLY satisfies the public’s sense of indignation.(Che, 2022) That is, when domestic investigators face a severe initial punishment, the case is deliberately dismissed, leaving purchasers unconvicted and women unrescued, while the general public loses interest, assuming that the increased penalty has remedied the problem. So, we need to do more than just raising penalties.
Emphasizing on government officials reminds them of their responsibilities and makes sure that law procedures were carried out correctly. In the U.S. , the government is highly responsible for accusing, punishing and containing these law offenders. Jaycee Lee Dugard, kidnapped by a sex offender on parol, sued California government for their failure in monitoring this criminal. Her family received “a $20-million settlement from California under an agreement approved by lawmakers” With law procedures that hold the government accountable, officials are more willing to take on responsibilities. According to the U.S. , China should do the same. Stated by Department of state, China should “Respecting due process, vigorously investigate, prosecute, and impose prison sentences on perpetrators of forced labor and sex trafficking, including complicit government officials.” (2021) China has been applying the accusation of malfeasance in other areas, especially during COVID. A mayor in Yunnan Province was dismissed as he was unable to contain the pandemic with his policies. (Yang, 2021) By allowing victims to accuse local officials of malfeasance and setting warning systems for officials failed to rescue women, convict buyers.
All in all, the essence of trafficking in women lies in the deprivation of women’s basic rights. Because of their reproductive value, they were pushed into the quagmire of “marriage” that one cannot escape. The Chinese government has made significant progress in penalizing traffickers, but we still need to make an effort in reducing the scale of the buyers market with methods used by other countries. In the current context of globalization, China has been struggling culturally: even though we realized that the traditional culture is not perfect, we fear that we could be totally influenced by western culture and lose our own identity. Perhaps we can start from human trafficking, and gradually look for the balace point between international and traditional culture in all aspects of life. Idealistically, we may keep up with the times and still maintain a certain level of uniqueness.
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