Woman gets death rap for abduction, trafficking of 11 children

Yu Huaying, a woman accused of trafficking 11 children for illicit gains, was sentenced to death by a court in southwest China's Guizhou Province on Monday.

It was discovered during the trial that from 1993 to 1996, Yu, born in Yunnan in 1963, colluded with a man surnamed Gong, who died during the course of the case, to repeatedly abduct children from Chongqing and Guizhou and traffic them to Hebei Province for illicit financial benefits.

According to a previous report by ThePaper, there were three pairs of siblings among the 11 children who were trafficked.

The Guiyang Intermediate People's Court believed that Yu's behavior constituted the crime of child abduction and the criminal circumstances were particularly serious, with a great negative effect on society.

Therefore, the court sentenced her to death, deprived Yu of her political rights for life, and confiscated all her personal property.

Yu said she will appeal the decision to a higher court.

Yu was arrested by police in June 2022 following a complaint from Yang Niuhua, a woman who was snatched by Yu in Guizhou and sold in Hebei in 1995 for 2,500 yuan (US$343).

Yang, 33, had been trying hard to find her biological family. She posted a searching-for-family video on social media in 2021, which was seen by one of her cousins. Finally she had a successful DNA match and was reunited with her family after 26 years. Unfortunately, Yang's biological parents passed away in 1997 and 1998, respectively.

She went to Guiyang police to file a complaint about her abduction in 2022. Yu was caught soon afterwards and prosecuted in February this year.

On July 14, 2023, during the open court proceedings of the Guiyang Intermediate People's Court, when it was Yang's turn to speak, she suddenly stood up, knelt down on the spot, and tearfully pleaded with the court to severely punish Yu.