Ted Naganawa brought an interesting article to my attention today.  I’ve crudely translated sections of the article to English and have posted the original version at the end of the post.  A few questions resonate with me:

1. Are underground sales of Chinese newborns a direct result of the 20 million out of work migrants?

2. Why isn’t Western news media covering this story?

3. Who is purchasing these babies?

4. Given the sex ratio imbalance and current government-supported incentives for baby girls, why are boys worth more than twice that of females, in this instance?

Shenzhen Underground Clinics Selling Abandoned Baby Girls (20,000) and Baby Boys (50,000)
He sucks on his finger and peers up at the world with curiosity.  He has no name and will not know his birth parents.  He has become a commodity.  A 12 day old baby girl is now worth 20,000 and a 2 and a half month old baby boy is worth 50,000.  Yesterday a reporter made an unannounced visit to obtain firsthand evidence of this activity and reported it to the authorities.  Local PSB officers rushed to the scene and rescued the two babies.

This clinic had babies to sell

A few days ago, a [source] was led to an underground clinic in Second District Longsheng by a friend.  [Source] suddenly heard a child crying from a small room next door… “Who are the children crying?” he asked.  Liu replied, “the boys are born to female farm workers whose boyfriends left them.  The girl was born to a Jiangxi couple, but they wanted a boy so they abandoned her….”

“These parents give birth to children they do not want, these parents who are so annoying.  But now they have a naive child, which is even more annoying to them, so they sell it,” Liu says.  Liu told the reporters that the children are too poor and without a name, so they are sold as merchandise…

Liu’s clinic doesn’t have a license, but it has a lot of patients.  Liu is very busy; there are children crying…

“Very healthy,” Liu said. “ I have two children  that were delivered earlier.  We can sell the girls for 2 million and the boys for at least 5 million.  A lot of people are interested; we have one household that decided to buy a girl.  They can take these children to the hospital for a medical check-up, and if they are sick, we will give them a refund…”

The original article, in its entirety:

吮吸着手指，扑闪着乌溜溜的眼睛，好奇的望着陌生的世界，还没有人给起名字，也没有亲生父母的记忆，落入人间却沦为商品，12天的女婴标价2万元，2个半月的男婴“一口价”5万元。昨日，记者暗访获取第一手证据向警方报警，当地派出所迅速派员到场安全解救两名婴儿。

诊所内有婴儿“出售”

前几日，小爱（化名）患感冒，在友人介绍下，去宝安区大浪街道龙胜老村二区一家地下诊所看病。

看完病打完点滴，小爱突然听到诊所隔壁一间房内传出孩子的哭声。

由于做母亲时间不太长，小爱最揪心的就是孩子，听到哭声赶紧询问主治医生刘君，被告知隔壁养着两个孩子，女孩才出生没多久，男孩出生2个多月了。孩子被饿哭了。“孩子是谁的？”小爱疑惑地说，刘君回答说：“男孩是一个打工妹生的，男朋友跑了，自己又不敢养，就留给我了。女孩才出生，一对江西夫妇生了两个女孩了，想要个男孩，所以把女孩留下走了。”

刘君是附近有名的“接生婆”，龙胜老村二区附近的居民耳熟能详。按刘君的说法，女婴和男婴都是她一手接生的，孩子的父母不愿要孩子了，所以她就养着，但养着是要花钱的，而且她还给男婴的母亲2万元，所以，孩子都是她的。

小爱心疼地抱着女婴，突然，刘君的一句话让小爱张大了嘴。“你喜欢就抱走，1.8万元”，刘君说，男孩价钱高些。“生了孩子又不要，亲生父母可气，把不懂事的孩子标价卖掉，这更可气”，小爱对记者说，孩子太可怜了，还没有名字，连亲生父母的模样都记不清，就这样被当作商品卖了，于心不忍。

记者暗访地下诊所

昨日上午，宝安区大浪街道龙胜老村人头攒动，卖包子的、炸油饼的、卖水果的……提起刘君的诊所，人们很熟悉地抬手就指“那里、那里”，走过大榕树进入破旧小巷，只见刘君的诊所就在铁皮屋内。

诊所没有执照，但患者却不少，刘君也很忙碌。“哇……”，诊所隔壁房间传出孩子哭泣声，记者赶紧上前，只见屋内已有两名女子在看护孩子，看到记者上来，刘君跟着走来。

“都很健康，两孩子都是我接生的，一点问题都没有”，刘君说，女孩、男孩都可以卖，女孩2万元，男孩至少5万元，已经有很多人来问过，有一户人家已决定要买女孩，所以，要买孩子的话得赶紧，可以先交钱，再带着孩子去医院检查身体，假如孩子有疾病，可以退钱。

好像知道自己要被卖掉，两个孩子异口同声地哭了起来。刘君赶紧上去哄孩子，还将孩子的尿布打开，让记者识别孩子的性别。孩子睁大眼睛盯着刘君，目不转睛，刘君赶紧避开孩子的眼神说，两个孩子都没名字，对亲生父母没印象，带走了什么麻烦都没有，父母也不会找来的。

男婴不停地伸腿，还下意识地紧紧抓住身旁的女婴，女婴突然哭了起来。记者赶紧说：“你忍心啊，孩子都不愿意走。”刘君笑着说，孩子现在记不住的，没关系，反正在孩子身上花了不少钱。

警方成功解救婴儿

昨日中午11点30分许，记者带着录音证据赶到龙华派出所举报。龙华派出所陈所长闻讯部署解救行动。“初步认定，刘君和两名婴儿没有血缘关系，而且有非法售卖牟利动机”，林副所长立即带队前往调查，刘君正在与人洽谈售卖婴儿之事，民警冲进屋内控制刘君，两个婴儿安全获救被带回派出所。

经民警紧急联络，两个婴儿被送到医院做精心护养，目前，警方已联络到女婴在江西的父母，案件仍在进一步调查中。警方介绍，父母遗弃孩子已经违法，刘君非法售卖孩子更违法，将进一步调查收集证据，严厉处理涉案人员。

As always, feedback is much appreciated!

Commentary children, china, illicit economy, sale, translation, underground market