WASHINGTON, DC -- The following information was released by Radio Free Asia:
Members of a family planning office in the southern Chinese province of Hunan abducted several infants in recent years and profited by putting them up for adoption, according to a report from a China-based online media group.
Caijing.com said in an article Monday that officials in Longhui county's Gaoping township had seized some 10 newborns between 2002 and 2005, selling them to a local welfare orphanage in Shaoyang city.
The report said the babies were then adopted by foreigners who paid as much as U.S. $3,000 for each child.
According to caijing.com, officials seized infants regardless of whether or not they had been born to families in violation of China's one-child policy.
In one 2005 abduction, the report said, a baby girl named Yang Ling was taken from her home by officials who said her parents had not paid a "social foster charge."
The girl's father, Yang Libing, had been working as a migrant worker in the southeastern city of Shenzhen at the time and said that it wasn't until four years later that he and his wife learned that their daughter had been adopted by a couple in the U.S.
The Caijing.com reporter declined to be interviewed when contacted by RFA, but said that the information on the U.S. adoption had been obtained through several conversations with Yang and his wife.
On Monday, the Caijing.com-affiliated weekly New Century also quoted Jiang Dewei, the head of the Shaoyang orphanage, as saying that 13 infants had been sent to the facility by Gaoping county officials from 2002 to 2005.
Jiang said that most of the children had passed a required government examination procedure and had been identified as "abandoned infants."
New Century also reported that Shaoyang city and Longhui county established a joint investigation team on Monday to look into the accusations.
Claims denied
When RFA contacted the provincial family planning committee in Hunan on Tuesday, an employee denied the claims made in the report.
"How can you trust what appears on the Internet? We are the government, no such thing has happened," the employee said.
A female staff member who answered the phone at the welfare orphanage in Shaoyang on Tuesday could not provide any details surrounding the case.
"I don't know, as it happened several years ago. I am a new hire here."
Chinese citizens and rights groups have responded angrily to the allegations, calling on authorities to punish the family planning officials as "human trafficking criminals."
"I hope the government will thoroughly investigate this case, and that the perpetrators will be brought to justice," said Zhang Zilin, a Hunan-based rights activist.
Gender imbalance
China's controversial "one-child" policy began in 1980 and has been blamed for triggering abuses.
Allegations of forced late-term abortions, forced sterilization, harassment, and even forced eviction have been allegedly committed by officials keen to meet strict family planning quotas and evade penalties.
Officials have even thrown some one-child policy critics behind bars, including blind Shandong-based legal activist Chen Guangcheng, one of China's most prominent rights campaigners.
Chen has been held at his home in Yinan county along with his entire family since his release in September at the end of a four-year jail term.
Chen was jailed for "obstructing traffic" after he angered local family planning officials by encouraging local people to complain about forced abortions, forced sterilizations, and other abuses under the policy.
Reported by Xin Yu for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated by Ping Chen. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
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