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According to the United Nations Palermo Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons of 2000, as part of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, human trafficking involves “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons” by “the use of force or other means of coercion" with the “purpose of exploitation." The Protocol further explains “exploitation” as, at a minimum, “the sex work of others” and “other forms of sexual exploitation.” According to the Protocol, a person is considered a "trafficked victim if he or she is involved in the above-mentioned situations, regardless of whether the person consents to it or not."

China is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children who are subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and forced prostitution. Women and children from neighboring countries including Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Mongolia, Russia and North Korea, and from locations as far as Romania and Zimbabwe are trafficked to China for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor.

The United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking reports that around 600,000 migrant workers leave China annually to work overseas, most of whom are men. This number accounts for those tracked by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and does not include those who leave without documents. Perhaps up to 90% of the migrant workers are migrating through unregulated and uninformed channels. The number of female migrants is also rising rapidly, most of whom are young girls aged 17-25. In addition, it has been suggested that cross-border trafficking of women is increasing in China. Undocumented migrants who are trafficked into China mainly come from Vietnam, Russia, Korea and Myanmar. The UNIAP states that "there have been cases of individuals from southwest China trafficked through Myanmar into countries like Thailand and Malaysia. The purposes of cross-border trafficking are diverse, ranging from commercial sexual exploitation and forced marriage to illegal adoption, forced labour, and begging. For example, according to one study, of the 8,000 Vietnamese women married to Chinese men in Guangxi province between 1989 and 1999, some were introduced by friends and relatives, and most were found to have been trafficked."

Reports on Human Trafficking
According to a UNIAP study on the reports of human trafficking in China, "trafficking cases reported in print media between 2006 and 2007 found 800 articles on reported cases. Giving an indication of how the problem is presented and cases that are raised, the study found correlations between age, gender, and types of trafficking, for example, trafficking of young boys for adoption, and girls and young women for sexual exploitation. The main means of trafficking were: fraud and deception, 37%; kidnapping, 26%; abuse of power or a position of vulnerability, 17%; and physical violence, 5%. Only 58% of the articles reported into which sector victims were trafficked: forced prostitution 19%; entertainment industry, hairdressing or massage parlours 9%; brick kilns 9%; manufacturing 4%; domestic labour 3%; forced begging 3%; others 11%."

Geographic Distribution of Forced Laborers
According to the UNIAP report on human trafficking in China, "analysis of 301 trafficking cases reported by media over 2007 to mid-2008 indicated that Yunnan and Guizhou provinces are the main source provinces, while Fujian, Guangdong, and Shangdong are the main destination provinces. Henan province is both a source and destination for human trafficking. Yunnan and Guizhou provinces are amongst the provinces with the lowest GDP per capita in China, while Fujian, Guangdong and Shangdong have some of the highest GDP per capita."

Major Chinese Hubs for Human Trafficking
Internal trafficking is most pronounced among China’s migrant population, which is estimated to exceed 150 million people. Forced labor remains a serious problem, including in brick kilns, coal mines, factories, and on construction sites throughout China. There were numerous confirmed reports of involuntary servitude of children, adults, and migrant workers during the reporting period. As an example, in May 2009, media reports exposed a forced labor case at brick kilns in Anhui province, where mentally handicapped workers were subjected to slave-like conditions.

In addition to internal trafficking of the migrant population in China, rampant trafficking is often also attributed to a decade-long one-child policy that resulted in gender imbalance, and a universal expectation to marry. Men in communities experiencing severe shortage of women are under strong pressure to find a bride. When they cannot afford to pay the high bride price for local women, they readily resort to purchasing brides kidnapped from other areas. Popular areas of origin for domestically trafficked brides are the poorer areas of Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guizhou where poverty renders women more vulnerable to trafficking. Traffickers generally sell these women in distant areas, such as Shaanxi, Ningxia, Guangxi, Hainan, and Guangdong provinces with large gender imbalances.

Child Labor
One demographic particularly susceptible to forced labor is children. The U.S. Department of State has issued a report stating that "Chinese children are forced into prostitution, and various forms of forced labor, including begging, stealing, selling flowers, and work in brick kilns and factories; the children of migrants are particularly vulnerable to trafficking. For example, there were reports child laborers were found working in brick kilns, low-skill service sectors and in small workshops and factories. These reports found that the underage laborers are in their teens, typically ranging from 13 to 15 years old, but some are as young as 10 years old." In another instance, children in Xinjiang were forced to pick cotton as part of a “work-study” program, according to foreign media reports. However, they were worked long hours and exploited under this simple guise. Students do not have a voice in raising concerns about how they are employed and have no protection against any abusive work practice or dangerous conditions of being on the job. The overall extent of forced labor and child labor in China is also unclear in part because the government releases only limited information on the subject according the the report on trafficking issued by the U.S. Department of State.

Sex Trafficking
China’s legal definition of trafficking does not automatically regard children over the age of 14 who are subjected to the commercial sex trade as trafficking victims. In fact, Chinese laws only recognize forms of coercion other than abduction, such as threats of physical harm or nonphysical harm, as constituting a means of trafficking. In the United States Department of State report, "Article 244 of the Chinese Criminal Law criminalizes forced labor, but prescribes punishments of a fine or no more than three years imprisonment, and only if the circumstances are found to be 'serious' - penalties which are not sufficiently stringent." In addition, the definition of trafficking does not pertain to male victims of trafficking or adult victims of labor trafficking.

Women suffering from sexual exploitation is exponentially increasing. Traffickers usually attract victims through false promises of high salaries and stable job incomes. However, many women are tricked because of their poor education and they are also often marginalized minority groups who believe the false promises of traffickers who offer the hope of living an urban life.

The problem of sex trafficking stems from the gender imbalance present in China. Women are most likely sold into provinces like Henan in which the gender imbalance is particularly stark and where there is a high demand for women. Often times, men kidnap the women after enticing them with promises of employment and money, but later sell them to villages and other provinces. Trafficked women are often then forced into marriage and therefore suffer from prolonged sexual exploitation. Particularly, according the and article on "Human Trafficking and Smuggling in China" by Cindy Chu, trafficked women were usually aged between 20 and 50 in the past, but "recently most of them were under 20 and some were girls as young as 12 years old."

Extraction of Organs
The buying and selling of organs is prevalent in the black market of China. The organ trade is the trade of organs for organ transplantation. There is a shortage of organs available for transplantation which fuels a thriving black market for organs. Traditionally, Chinese culture dictates that organs should be buried and cremated in order for the individual to be reincarnated as a whole which has led to a dearth of bodies being donated. Therefore, China has resorted to harvesting organs from the bodies of prisoners for the use of organ transplants. In fact according to an organ trafficking paper written by Budiani-Saberi and Delmonico," n 2006, 11 000 transplants were performed in China from executed prisoners. There were 8000 kidney transplants, 3000 liver transplants and approximately 200 hundred heart transplants. The 8000 kidney transplants alone in China in 2006 would account for at least 10% of the total number of annual organ transplants done in programs of organ trafficking. It should be noted that since China's recently adopted Human Transplantation Act that bans commercialism was adopted in May 2007, China has reduced the number of transplants to foreign patients by 50% in 2007."

According to a New Yorker Article written by Jiayang Fan, "even though China performs more transplants annually than any country except the United States, less than one per cent of the population in need of life-saving transplants receives them (as compared to about twenty per cent in the United States). According to China’s Ministry of Health, some 1.5 million people continue to wait for transplants."

Law Enforcement against Trafficking
Although human trafficking is a prevalent problem within China, regulations and laws have been implemented in order to prohibit forms of trafficking. The Chinese government ratified the UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol in December 2009, which obligates China to prohibit all forms of trafficking and bring its domestic laws into conformity with international standards within 24 months. The U.S. Department of State reported that China had "arrested 19 of the country’s 20 most wanted traffickers and pursuit of criminal networks and organized crime syndicates involved in trafficking."

The Chinese government passed a number of laws against trafficking and smuggling. The penalties for traffickers and buyers of the ‘human goods’ are high and severe. In fact, law against trafficking in women in China is as severe as the law prohibiting rape according to the U.S. Department of State in 2001. However, the amount of corruption and weak enforcement by officials have impeded the successful implementation of such laws and programs. In addition, police complicity with smugglers has further exacerbated the problem, leaving women vulnerable to trafficking and forced marriage.

Federal Government Action
In a report by the Ministry of Public Security and the Minstry of Justice, details have been provided into combating human trafficking in China. For example, the report states that "since combating trafficking in women and children started nationally in 1991, a large number of cases of trafficking in women and children has been solved and handled and offenders severely punished according to law. In 2008, courts nationwide decided 1353 cases of trafficking in women and children, representing a 9.91% increase from 2007; 2161 offenders were sentenced and their sentences had legal effect, representing an 11.05% increase year-on-year. Of those who were sentenced, 1319 were sentenced to more than 5 years of fixed-term imprisonment or life imprisonment or death, representing a 10.1 % increase from 2007; the proportion of heavy penalties was 61.04%, or 45.27% higher than the proportion of heavy penalties in all the criminal cases of the same period. In 2009, courts nationwide decided 1636 cases of trafficking in women and children, representing a 20.9% increase from 2008; 2413 offenders were sentenced and their sentences had legal effect, representing an 11.7% increase year-on-year. Of those who were sentenced, 1475 were sentenced to more than 5 years of imprisonment or life imprisonment or death, representing a 11.83 % increase from 2008."

Organizations against Trafficking
Several organizations within China have dedicated efforts into ameliorating the human trafficking situation. For example, Save the Children is a program that has helped fund research to gain a clearer understanding into issues like migration, trafficking and street children to help promote safer migration. By educating children and young people about the dangers of trafficking, especially in communities of ethnic minorities, they will be better equipped to stay on their guard against trafficker organizations. According to a pamphlet created by Save the Children debriefing the current situation in China, the organization is "helping to build networks that migrants can turn to when they arrive in their destinations." They created a "safe migration textbook for children that has been institued into the education system in the Ping Xiang, Guanzi province. There is also child protection work at children's activity centers in cities like Nanning, Kunming, Shenzhen, and Shanghai with huge migrant communities.

There is also the All-China Women's Federation which is an anti-trafficking education campaign aimed at educating vulnerable women and children to protect themselves against prevailing social and cultural perspectives that propagate human trafficking. The All-China Women's Federation is also involved in a collaboration project with Vietnam to combat trafficking on the borders.