A
Sankei female journalist, Fukushima, picked up the story of Chinese woman who has been sold by her brother.
A Chinese woman called Ou were persuaded to go Beijing with his brother for the job offer, arriving, she realised that she was sold to the man 10 years older than her.
According to Fukushima , this kid of practice still continues in China, so I check it up and confirmed it.
Trafficking in women was one of the ‘oldest evil
trades’to flourish in pre-communist China. At that time, parents and husbands
were permitted by the law to sell their children or wives in the open marketplace
The practice in the early twentieth century of selling daughters to support a
family or purchasing a woman to carry on a family line is still vivid in the
memory of many people, particularly in underdeveloped rural areas.pdf
Tens of thousands of women are bought and sold in China each year. The most popular areas for abducting women are the poor areas of Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou. (Human Rights in China organization report, Sophia Woodman, Stephanie Ho, "Trafficking of Women in China," Voice of America, 27 September 1995)
China is a destination of trafficked women from Ukraine and Russia. (Global Survival Network, Vladmir Isachenkov, "Soviet Women Slavery Flourishes," Associated Press, 6 November 1997) Traffickers are increasingly transporting Burmese and Chinese girls for prostitution, partially due to a decrease in the availability of northern Thai girls. "Their pleasant character, white skin and beauty were similar to northern girls." (Prof Kusol Sunthorntada, Researcher, Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, ("More foreign workers join sex industry as fewer Thai girls enter flesh trade," Poona Antaseeda. Bangkok Post, 24 November 1997) Girls from China, aged 12-18, are in more demand for the sex industry in Thailand since fewer girls from Northern Thailand are being lured by traffickers. (Wanchai Boonphacra, Centre for the Protection of Children's Rights, "More foreign workers join sex industry as fewer Thai girls enter flesh trade," Poona Antaseeda. Bangkok Post, 24 November 1997)
Women are also being trafficked for sale as wives to husbands who often resell them. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)
Chinese girls from provinces in Yunan state are trafficked via Chiang Tung in Burma and then into Thailand at Mae Sai in Chiang Rai. ("More foreign workers join sex industry as fewer Thai girls enter flesh trade," Poona Antaseeda. Bangkok Post, 24 November 1997)
Traffickers force Chinese immigrants into indentured servitude, women into prostitution and men into the restaurant business. In September 1998, 153 men and 21 women, including 35 juveniles, arrived in San Diego, California from China via Mexico, after paying smugglers $30,000. In 1997, 69 and in 1993, 650 Chinese immigrants were intercepted in the same area. If caught by immigration (INS) officials, most will be sent back to China, unless they receive political asylum. The smugglers may face jail time in the United States. (Paula Story, "Chinese Immigrant Boat Reaches US," Associated Press Online, 19 September 1998)
Thousands of girls from China's southern are trafficked into Thailand's sex industry; some go on to Malaysia or Singapore. The economic crisis has no impact on this segment of the sex industry. More affluent Chinese businessmen from mainland China or Taiwan who do business in Thailand purchase sex from these Chinese girls. (Supalak Ganjanakhundee, "Migrant workers booming as Asian economy declines," Kyodo News, 23 September 1998Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation
China and Hong Kong
In a way the situation seems to be worse than the situation under Japanese troop.
I don't mean to justfiy comfort stations under Japanese rule ;the police didn't regulated illegal brokers sufficiently, and the troop didn't pay due attention to the well-being of women. Japan has acknowledged it was wrong.
I am just stating facts. Also I am raising a question why it is that more pressing issue is ignored in the international media while making fuss about the matter Japan has apologized for several times, saying that it was not sincere.
....................................................................................
http://www.iza.ne.jp/news/newsarticle/world/china/53879/
【中国を読む】農村女性残酷物語 福島香織
10:51 この記事についてのブログ(29)
２年前、北京郊外の平谷区の民族村と呼ばれる村落を訪れた。桃の花の名所だが、実は農作物のほとんど実らぬ寒村で、嫁の来手（きて）がない。だからベトナム国境あたりの少数民族の村から嫁を買う。北京なのにミャオ族やナシ族の女たちが暮らすので民族村。
そこで出会ったミャオ族の王美芬さん（当時３７歳）は１９のとき、８つ年上の実兄に５０００元（約８万円）で売られてきた。「好きな人がいたのに、北京で働き口があるとだまされて連れてこられた」。村に着いてだまされたと知り泣いて抵抗すると、兄は棍棒（こんぼう）で折檻（せっかん）した。兄は受け取った金で故郷に家を構え、意中の女性と結婚した。
「１０歳年上の夫とは方言の違いで、当初は言葉も通じなかった。結婚２年後、子供が生まれてもう逃げられないとあきらめた」。昔の恋人は、王さんを待ってまだ独身という。語る王さんの涙は止まらず、ぽたぽたとズボンの上にぬれたシミをつくり続けた。
■今も続く女性売買
中国の女に生まれるということはなんとむごいことかと、そのときつくづくと思ったが、やがてこんなのは序の口と知る。
昨年暮れの事件だ。陝西省延安県の村で結婚仲介者が知的障害の女性（２０）を家族から２０００元（約３万２０００円）で買った。仲介者は別の村の男性に若く健康な嫁として売ったのだが、後で障害がばれて返された。もてあました仲介者は女性を殺害、遺体を「陰婚」仲介組織に転売した。
陰婚とは、未婚男性が亡くなったとき、あの世の伴侶（はんりょ）として墓に未婚女性の遺体を一緒に埋葬する農村の俗習だ。陰婚用の遺体は遺族が売ることも、病院の遺体安置室や墓から横流しされたり、盗まれたりすることもあるらしいが、陝西省や山西省などで炭坑事故による若い男性の死が急増し陰婚用遺体が値上がりしているため、最近では若い女性を狙った連続殺人事件も起きている。
この事件も「陰婚」仲介地下組織の摘発によって明らかになった。地方紙にひっそり載った記事によれば、事件解決後も家族は彼女の遺体を引き取ろうとしなかった。中国の女は生きて売られ、死んでもなお売られ続ける。
■一人政策に暴動
先週末、広西チワン族自治区博白県の６カ村で３００～３０００人規模の暴動が相次いで発生、役場などが焼き討ちされた。新華社によれば人口抑制政策・一人っ子政策徹底への反発が原因で２８人が逮捕された。香港消息筋によれば、博白県では今年の旧正月以降、政策違反の夫婦には数万元の罰金徴収が徹底されたうえ、１万７０００人以上の女性たちが次々と強制堕胎、強制避妊手術を受けさせられたという。
こんなふうに中国女性の境遇に思いをはせてしまったのは、最近、中国政府が全国幹部の４０％が女性だといった統計を発表したからだ。確かに昨年の長者番付１位は女性社長で、呉儀副首相はじめ女性の社会進出は日本以上に目立つ。だが、貧富の差同様、女性の境遇の格差も開く一方だ。男尊女卑思想が深く染みついたこの国で、人口抑制政策の犠牲は農村女性にしわ寄せがきている。
その結果、最新の統計では中国の男女出生比率は１１９対１００にまで拡大、２０２０年には４０００万人の男性が結婚にあぶれるそうだ。政府は慌てているが、それを聞いて私は少しほっとする。不幸な女が多少は生まれずにすんだのかと。男たちが多少女性の大切さを思い知るきっかけになるかももしれないと。（北京総局）
Violenceagainst
Women under
China’s Economic
Modernisation:
Resurgence of Women
Trafficking in China
XIN REN
Page 1
Trafficking in women was one of the ‘oldest evil
trades’to flourish in pre-communist China. At that time, parents and husbands
were permitted by the law to sell their children or wives in the open marketplace.
The early practice of women and children trafficking represented women and
children’s inferior social status before the law and generally reflected the
society’s values and attitudes toward victims of this evil trade in the traditional
Chinese society. When political power changed hands in China in 1949, the new
government quickly abolished such inhuman practices against women and
children. They launched a public campaign that vigorously and swiftly eradicated
the trade in slaves, prostitution and opium in the late 1950s. The government’s
triumph over these evil forces not only provided badly needed social stability for
the revival of the national economy but also boosted public confidence in the
newly established political entity, and eventually helped the communist party to
consolidate power throughout China.
As China has undergone drastic political and economic changes in the past
fifteen years, human trafficking has resurfaced. It has been reported in more than
twenty of China’s thirty provinces and autonomous regions since the early 1980s.
Women and children have been the primary targets of abduction, illegal
imprisonment, physical and sexual assault, and sale. Although no official
statistics have been released on how many women and children were abducted
and sold in the black market, the media and unofficial sources put their estimates
at at least 10 000. The slave trade in women is particularly prevalent, and has not
only affected hundreds and thousands of families in rural areas but also the
population in cities. This paper is a preliminary report on the issues of violent
crimes against women in this evil trade practice under China’s economic and
social modernisation program. To understand the enormous social impact of this
crime on Chinese families and people, I begin with an assessment of the
Violenceagainst
Women under
China’s Economic
Modernisation:
Resurgence of Women
Trafficking in China
X
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prevalence of the abduction and sale of women and a description of trafficking
network operating in China. Secondly, I shall discuss various violent acts against
the slaves and their families. The third issue of this paper traces the historical
roots of the trade and considers the social breeding ground that has allowed such
crime to flourish under the economic reform. The final section is devoted to the
official crackdown on trafficking.
Prevalence and Trafficking Network
The trade in women is particularly rife in villages in mountainous and remote
rural areas of provinces such as Sichuan, Shandong, Hebei and Henan. For
instance, between 1986 and 1988, there were 48 100 women sold in six counties
of Xiuzhou region in Jiangshu Province. In one village, two-thirds of newly
wedded brides were purchased through the black market peddlers. In a county of
100 000 population, peasants spent a total of US$85 000 for purchasing nearly
700 women as wives from 1982 to 1988. 7424 cases of human trafficking were
reported to police in Guizhou Province between January and September of 1988.
Consequently, the police arrested 2535 offenders for alleged human trafficking
and abduction. Law enforcement agencies in Shangdong Province rounded up
2761 offenders and 267 gangs for operating trafficking rings and liberated 2035
abducted women and 158 children.
The slave trade affected the lives of thousands and generated lucrative
profits for the abductors and dealers at various points of the process. For each
deal that goes through, traffickers can make between US$300 and US$500. A
trafficking ring with 40 members in the city of Xiuzhou abducted and sold more
than 100 women and generated more than US$100 000 profit within a two-year
period in the later 1980s. Trafficking often involves a chain of abductors, with
each one passing women on to the next link in their intricate network throughout
the country. Most traffickers are young men between 22 and 37-years-old,
peasants, unemployed, taxi, bus and truck drivers and railway workers.
Traffickers usually organise their network along the railways. Once women are
abducted, they are often stripped and lined up for sale in the rural free markets.
The trade is often made under the eyes of the law and local cadres. The abducted
victims in Xiuzhou, mainly aged between 14 and late thirties, were sold for
between US$400 and US$800 depending on looks, age, virginity, physical
condition, and previous marital status.
A preliminary investigation conducted by local and provincial law
enforcement agencies found that, besides abduction, a significant proportion of
victims of the slave trade was lured away by dealers through deception such as a
job offer, an admission to college, or a promising marriage in big cities. Since
many young women are eager to leave their isolated, impoverished small towns
or villages for better opportunities and life elsewhere, they often fall into the trap
of traffickers who pretend to help them with promises of college, jobs in big
cities, and ideal marriages. Some of the women were sold voluntarily, hoping to
escape poverty or an abusive husband for a better life elsewhere. Most of them
do not understand the perils they are facing in this brutal and illicit trade.
Tragically, some of the victims were sold to men who are mentally retarded,Page 3
Resurgence of Women Trafficking in China
71
physically disabled, elderly or were to be shared by several brothers within a
family.
Criminal Violence against Women
In the slave trade, the commission of violence is a daily event. Many women
were victims of kidnapping, rape, sexual slavery, psychological humiliation,
physical torture or even mutilation and murder. According to victims’ own
accounts and those of witnesses, victims were held in inhuman conditions, with
long-term solitary confinement, physical restraining, starvation and humiliation
being used. Their eyes were blindfolded, hands tied, mouths taped, and they were
kept in the dark for several days without clothing, adequate food or water.
Forced virginity examination was also a common practice. When victims tried to
escape from men who bought them, they were often recaptured, brutally beaten,
imprisoned, mutilated or even murdered. In 1989, a women’s magazine reported
an incident in which a woman’s eyes were gouged out by her husband, who
bought her in a black market, so that she won’t be able to escape again. What is
even more devastating is that many escaping victims were recaptured and
returned to the men who bought them by local law enforcement officers or public
security staff in the village. Instead of viewing the slave trade as illicit and
violent, many officials considered the men who bought women to be the
legitimate owners. For instance, when a bride was known to be a victim of
human trafficking and forced marriage, local officials would still issue a
marriage licence. Many women committed suicide as the only way out of this
tragedy.
Theoretical Analysis on the Causes of Slavery Trade in China
The selling women as wives or prostitutes has its historical roots in traditional
values about men and women, but there are a number of reasons for the
contemporary rise in the slave trade.
The practice in the early twentieth century of selling daughters to support a
family or purchasing a woman to carry on a family line is still vivid in the
memory of many people, particularly in underdeveloped rural areas. This old
custom of carrying on the paternal line has come under siege as a result of
China’s one-child-family policy. In many cases, a husband sold his wife to a
dealer simply because she gave a birth to a baby girl and his family has shunned
the wife for being unable to bear a son. As a result of the clash between
traditional values and the official one-child-family policy, female infanticide has
also become prevalent in rural China. Again, government officials rarely take
any action against offenders.
The rising cost of the traditional rural wedding, which frequently exceeds
US$2500 nowadays, makes marriage very expensive and often unaffordable,
while purchasing a wife generally costs only US$500 to US$800. For the rural
population, marriage is not a personal matter that involves emotional
commitment and romantic affection but a family responsibility of prolonging
their paternal line. Therefore, in many families, the marriage of their son is aPage 4
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family affair and every member will have to work hard and save every penny for
the dowry. If it is necessary, a family may sell its daughters to raise money to
purchase a wife or to exchange with another family for a daughter-in-law.
Arranged baby marriage also exists in many rural areas. Women are still
regarded as the reproductive property of men, which can be purchased and sold
at a market price.
The growth of prostitution as a by-product of the rapid expansion of tourism
has provided another market for traffickers. Pimps control the prostitution
industry while the traffickers supply sex slaves for high profits. Along with
economic development, more and more young women left their poor villages to
go to the big cities for opportunities of jobs, education and a better life. The sex
industry has provided them with an alternative living in cities. According to the
Public Health officials, the widespread prostitution problem has brought a
rocketing rate of venereal diseases.
In addition, woman trafficking is believed to have increased as economic
controls in the rural areas are eased and more people, both men and women,
search for ways to be prosperous or escape poverty for a better life elsewhere
while China moves towards a market-oriented economy. People now have more
freedom to decide where they want to live or work. They can be self-employed
and are subjected to less governmental scrutiny and official control. The partial
emergence of a market economy has reinvigorated the slave trade, as travel and
residence change become easier and peasants accumulate enough cash to
purchase a bride. Although woman trafficking is strictly illegal under sections
140 and 141 of the penal law, the rapid decline in social and legal control has
had a devastating impact on protecting women/children from these crimes. In
addition, many participants of the slave trade, including some of the victims,
view such activities primarily as a means of making business and achieving
economic prosperity. Lastly, the high illiteracy rate among the female rural
population has severely hampered victims’ chances of seeking effective help
from official agencies and private organisations.
1
Official Crackdown
The Government has recently launched a campaign against abduction and slavery
trade by declaring it as one of ‘six evils’.
2
On 4 September 1991, the National
People’s Congress passed two bills to prohibit solicitation of prostitution and to
increase penalties for the crimes of women and children abduction and
trafficking. The new laws criminalise such conducts as engaging in prostitution
with sexually transmitted diseases, purchasing abducted women or children, and
kidnapping for ransom. They create a group of serious felony crimes such as
1
China still has more than 220 million people who are illiterate or literate at a socially
dysfunctional level. Of this population, more than a half of them are women in rural areas.
Chinese officials reported that in 1989, among seven million children who dropped out of
school, 80 per cent were girls in rural areas.
2
These were prostitution and women trafficking, pornographic publications and sales,
manufacturing and trafficking in narcotics, illegal gambling and swindling through
superstition.Page 5
Resurgence of Women Trafficking in China
73
operating a human trafficking ring and kidnapping women and children for the
purpose of sale. The new laws have also increased the penalties for prostitution,
for forcing women into prostitution, and for human trafficking.
3
The bills require
mandatory educational programs and medical tests of sexually transmitted
diseases for those arrested for prostitution and solicitation. The new laws
delegate the responsibility of inspection, suspension and full closure of hotels,
taverns, bars and night clubs (where the owners may be involved in prostitution
and the trafficking of women) to the local business licensing agencies. The new
laws also affirm the legal responsibility of local, district, county and provincial
governments to cooperate with law enforcement agencies’investigative efforts
and help those victims of abduction and slavery to reunite with their families.
The official crackdown on human slavery trade began in the early 1990s. On
28 September 1990, a 27-year-old man was found guilty of selling his mother,
wife, his three-year-old daughter and 18 other women and children. He was
executed on 3 November 1990. In January 1991, six men were executed and
seven others were imprisoned for abducting and selling women in the province
of Henan. The execution was a result of crackdown on a gang of human slave
trade. This group of men had abducted 70 women and sold 61 for a total of more
than 138 000 yuan (US$26 500). A similar case was also reported in Shanxi
Province. In June 1991, the provincial court sentenced ten men to death for
kidnapping and selling 91 women; the youngest one was only 13-years-old.
These offenders had also raped at least 22 women before selling them to peasants
who needed wives. The ten men, as a part of gang, had earned 210 000 yuan
(US$40 000) over several years. Recently, the traders have expanded their
market and territory beyond the borders of China. For instance, Burma’s
authority has contacted Chinese official about young Chinese women rescued by
the police from massage parlours. The reports suggest that these women were
sold by Chinese smugglers to Burma. Chinese police have also repatriated at
least 2716 Vietnamese women who were believed to be abducted, smuggled and
sold to Chinese peasants. According to government reports, between 1990-91,
65 236 people were arrested for involvement in the sale of women and children.
From 1993-94, another 50 000 traffickers were arrested in a further 33 100 cases.
The authorities reported that 27 000 people, including 2700 children, were
rescued. However, even the government admits that this was just the tip of the
iceberg concerning the problem of women trafficking.
As China’s economic development continues, the trade in women will
continue to make its way back into rural and poverty-striking areas. The battle
against women trafficking is far from over.
3
The new laws increase the penalty from the original 5 to 10 years of imprisonment to minimal
10 years to life or death penalty.
The study, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, concerns girls from Nepal trafficked into bordellos in India, but the problem is also emerging elsewhere, said the lead author, Jay G. Silverman, a professor of human development at Harvard’s School of Public Health.
Girls from China’s Yunnan Province sold to Southeast Asian brothels, Iraqi girls from refugee camps in Syria and Jordan, and Afghan girls driven into Iran or Pakistan all appear to be victims of the same pattern, he said, and are presumably contributing to the H.I.V. outbreaks in southern China, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Worldwide, about 500,000 young women are trafficked each year, according to the State Department. Most of the 150,000 trafficked in southern Asia end up working as prostitutes in Indian cities, according to the United States Congressional Research Service. Rights agencies said a decade ago that up to 7,000 women from Nepal were trafficked to India each year; civil strife has presumably increased that numberSex Slaves Returning Home Raise AIDS Risks, Study Says
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Published: August 1, 2007
“some estimates put the prostitute population as high as 13 percent of all Chinese women”
http://www.china-aids.org/english/News/News036.htm
“In China, the estimates of child sex workers range from 200,000 to 500,000″
.
www.globalmarch.org/resourcecentre/world/china.pdf -
The “sex industry” is certainly a significant part of the Chinese economy. When we consider that the Chinese GDP in 1998 and 1999 was 7.8 trillion RMB and 8.3 trillion RMB, the contribution of the “sex industry” to the GDP comes in at about 12.1 - 12.8 percent
http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/sandt/sex-industry.htmlponta/occidentalism
売春婦経済は年8兆円規模！2000万人の「女性」が経済を支える！？―中国
1月2日8時40分配信 Record China
売春婦経済は年8兆円規模！2000万人の「女性」が経済を支える！？―中国
拡大写真
2007年12月30日、中国に2000万人いるとされる売春婦の経済状況が明らかに。北京などの大都市では彼女たちの平均年収は20万元（約320万円）。国内全員の年収総額は5000億元（約8兆円）にのぼる。写真は山西省太原市のマッサージ店。
2007年12月30日、中国のニュースサイト「中国ネット」は国内に2000万人いるとされる売春婦の経済状況について報道。
資料によると、彼女ら全員の年収総額は5000億元（約8兆円）に上るとされ、中国の国内総生産（GDP）のなんと6％を占めることに。北京などでの大都市で稼ぐ彼女たちの平均年収は20万元（約320万円）にもなる。【 その他の写真 】
過去の報道によると、ある地方都市で市政府が売春婦一掃作戦を遂行したところ、これに怒った彼女たちがいっせいに銀行から預金を引き出し、取り付け騒ぎを起こした。結局、市政府側が折れて、彼女たちは「商売」に復帰できたという。このように、いまや“主幹産業”の一部となり地方経済を支える彼女たちの「商売」だが、1回400元（約6400円）が大都市での相場で、そのうちの30％を「場所提供者」のホテルやクラブに納める仕組みになっている。
ちなみに「お客さん」として彼女たちに最も人気があるのが韓国人男性で、その理由は「やさしく、対等に扱ってくれるから」だそうだ。（翻訳・編集/本郷智子）
売春婦経済は年8兆円規模！2000万人の「女性」が経済を支える！？―中国
1月2日8時40分配信２００８魚拓
