Court in eastern China sentences 2 men to death for trafficking 40 infants

China sentences 2 to death for child trafficking

BEIJING — Two men have been sentenced to death in eastern China for abducting and trafficking 40 infants.

The official Xinhua News Agency says a court sentenced the men on Monday for their involvement in a ring that abducted dozens of baby boys from Sichuan and Yunnan provinces and sold them to villagers in neighboring Fujian for up to $6,000 each.

Calls to the Quanzhou Intermediate People’s Court rang unanswered Tuesday.

A preference for males is common in China’s rural regions, and families sometimes abort baby girls because they are limited to one or two children by family-planning laws. In some regions, the male-female ratio can be as high as 130 males for every 100 females, compared to an average ratio of 107-to-100 in industrialized countries.