Baby adoption case draws scrutiny in China
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-07 11:23

China's system is meant to ensure that all adoptees are orphaned or abandoned. Foreign parents are matched with children by the government's China Center for Adoption Affairs and are barred from dealing directly with orphanages.

The Qidong County People's Court in Hunan province convicted Liang, orphanage director Chen Ming and eight others of buying babies stolen from families in neighboring Guangdong province and selling them to welfare homes, according to state media.

Some were adopted by foreigners "who made donations" to the homes, the government's Xinhua News Agency said. It said the homes paid $400-$540 per baby.

Liang and two other people were sentenced to 15 years, Chen to one year and six other people to terms ranging from three to 13 years, news reports said. They said 22 officials were fired for negligence.

The court took the unusual step of ordering participants in the case not to talk about it publicly.

The court, the Qidong County prosecutors' office and the local Civil Affairs Bureau, which is in charge of orphanages, declined to release details on how many babies were adopted abroad or where. A spokeswoman for the Center for Adoption Affairs, who refused to give her name, said the agency is looking into the case.

Supporters of Liang, who lived in Wuchuan County in Guangdong, and the others say they passed on as many as 1,000 abandoned babies to orphanages over the past 14 years. They say they weren't paid for the babies but were reimbursed for travel and other expenses.

The supporters say legal troubles for Liang and the others began when one of them, a woman named Duan Meilin, was stopped by police while she was taking several children to Hunan.

Police cleared Duan, but the Xinhua bureau in Hunan filed a report for internal government use saying a baby-trafficking ring was operating, they said. Xinhua files thousands of such "internal reference" reports every year.

Officials in Beijing saw the report and ordered Liang, Duan and others prosecuted, according to their supporters. They said local officials told the court to convict them. Duan also got 15 years.