Human trafficking of women and children in China has increased to over 42,000 reported cases from 2001 to 2003, according to official statistics.

According to the Chinese Official Media, Xin Hua News Agency, over a period of three years, police in China has solved about 20,000 cases of illegal sales of women and children. A total of 22,000 suspects have been arrested. Many young girls from the rural areas have been sold to various areas and forced to marry or become sex slaves. Young boys have been sold to childless families or families with only one child due to the One Child Policy in China.

Ma Xiaoming, a reporter from Xi An, said there are three reasons for the increase of human trafficking cases.

Due to the slow economic development of rural areas, many teenage girls and women flock to the urban areas to make a living, abandoning the males in the rural areas. As a result, the males have created a market by resorting to buy wives.

An increase of illegal activities has resulted due to the falling moral standard in China, with people using any method to get rich so to achieve a so-called glamorous life. Instead of gaining money by hard work, many have resorted to illegal methods such as drug and human trafficking.

Lastly, the One Child Policy in China that was amended in 1997 to lessen the occurrence of human trafficking has had little affect, according to Xin Hua News Agency.

American Law Professor Yu Haocheng suggests that implementing laws cannot solve the problem entirely. To solve the problem the government must evaluate the financial development of the country as well as implement laws and policies. The core of the problem lies with the increasing gap between the rich and the poor. As a result of poverty and preference for males, rural people sell their daughters for financial gain.

Since January, Guizhou Province has arrested 45 people for illegally trafficking of five babies. Last December, three men were sentenced to death for trafficking 32 women. In Guzngxi, leaders of two human trafficking organizations were also been sentenced to death for illegally selling 118 babies last November.