92 children and two women were rescued by Chinese police from a ring of kidnappers earlier this month, in one of the largest crackdowns on these kinds of criminals in China in the recent past.
Law enforcement officials in China took custody of 301 suspects they think could be members of this extended network of kidnappers. Police were investigating the group for six months before performing raids in 11 locations on Sept. 11, state news agency Xinhua reported.
According to Al Jazeerza, the bust will most likely not make enormous change in the kidnapping crisis that has stricken China in the last few years. The Chinese government said that a few thousand children are abducted every year. Various independent humanitarian organizations claimed this figure might be closer to 70,000. In the United States, about 100 children are kidnapped every year.
There are a few aspects to why China experiences such high rates of kidnapping. According to the Ministry of Public Secuirty, who spoke with Xinhua, an abundance of Chinese families still believe the traditional notion that boys are better than girls. Since China holds a one-child policy per family, many pay for boys if they cannot give birth to one of their own. Additionally, kids are sold to adoption agencies with high costs for kids.
Government officials have started cracking down nationwide on abductions by performing extensive searches and demanding more strict punishments on people who buy kidnapped children, Al Jazeera reported.
Two years ago, the Chinese police stated they'd found more than 13,000 children and 23,000 women from 2009 to 2011.
