China launches campaign to stem trafficking of women and children after viral video exposed chained mother

Name: Kidnapped: the Chinese parents desperately searching for missing children
Uploaded: 2022-03-02T08:36:27.000Z
Duration: 12 min 40 s
Description: Kidnapped: the Chinese parents desperately searching for missing children

Ministry of Public Security launches year-long campaign with plan to ‘to expose and report clues related to abduction’

‘One million police entering ten thousand homes’ strategy suggests many officials will venture deep into communities to assess the scope of the issue

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The video of a woman surnamed Yang chained to wall by her neck has sparked debate in China about human trafficking. Photo: Weibo

Erika Na

Published: 4:36pm, 2 Mar 2022Updated: 8:12pm, 2 Mar 2022

China’s Ministry of Public Security launched a year-long campaign on Tuesday to tackle the trafficking of women and children, the subject of national fury since a video of a mentally-ill woman chained in a dirty shack by her husband went viral.

The ministry announced it would mobilise everything in its power – including police and the departments of civil affairs and health as well as women’s federation organisations – to tackle the issue.

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Kidnapped: the Chinese parents desperately searching for missing children

The main targets for the campaign are women and children whose origins are not known, such as people who are homeless and beg on the street, those who are mentally impaired, mentally ill or who have disabilities.

The ministry’s campaign begins at an especially critical time in China, just three days ahead of the annual session of the National People’s Congress, the national legislature, in Beijing this Saturday.

In recent weeks, NPC and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) representatives have proposed legal amendments to take on trafficking.

Fan Yun, an NPC representative, proposed that buyers should face the same punishment as traffickers. Current criminal law dictates that buyers are liable for a three-year maximum jail term, while traffickers face penalties of five years to life, or even the death penalty.