U.S. missions overseas are dedicated to covering human trafficking issues year-round. China’s national household registry system ( hukou) continues to restrict rural inhabitants’ freedom to legally change their workplace or residence, placing China’s internal migrant population—estimated to exceed 180 million men, women, and children—at high risk of forced labor in … Central, provincial, and local government officials were also reportedly complicit—with impunity—in forced labor as part of China’s mass detention and political indoctrination campaign against members of Muslim ethnic minority groups, and authorities reportedly subjected Tibetans and members of other ethno-religious groups to similar abuses. In prior years, the government reported maintaining at least 10 shelters specifically dedicated to care for Chinese trafficking victims, as well as eight shelters for foreign trafficking victims and more than 2,300 multi-purpose shelters nationwide that could accommodate trafficking victims; it did not provide information on these shelters in 2018. The same is true of the government’s targeted forced-displacement programs, including the Bingtuan’s construction of new settlements designated for ethnic Han internal migrants, which reportedly disperses Uighur communities and disrupts their livelihoods. 80 percent of victims end up in China, police data shows. The Ministry of Civil Affairs, a nationwide women’s organization, and grassroots NGOs could provide victims with shelter, medical care, counseling, social services, and—in some cases—rehabilitation services. Traffickers kidnap or recruit women and girls through marriage brokers and transport them to China, where some are subjected to sex trafficking or forced labor. Visitors to China, U.S. Citizens with emergencies, please call 010-8531 4000, Outside of Office Hours, contact: 010-8531-3000. End forced labor in government facilities, in nongovernmental facilities converted to government detention centers, and by government officials outside of the penal process. The government reported efforts to reduce forced labor by including language in written agreements with foreign businesses and countries explicitly prohibiting trafficking, but authorities were generally unresponsive to allegations of ensuing forced labor. International media report local authorities force children in some government-supported work-study programs to work in factories. Many North Korean refugees and asylum-seekers living illegally in China are particularly vulnerable to trafficking. Chinese men in Africa and South America experience abuse at construction sites, in coal and copper mines, and in other extractive industries, where they face conditions indicative of forced labor, such as non-payment of wages, restrictions on movement, withholding of passports, and physical abuse. On World Day against Trafficking in Persons, three women survivors tell us their stories. Access to specialized care depended heavily on victims’ location and gender; male victims were far less likely to receive care. In 2013, the National People’s Congress ratified a decision to abolish “Re-education through labor” (RTL), a punitive system that subjected individuals to extra-judicial detention involving forced labor, from which the government reportedly profited. Both China and Myanmar are listed in the lowest tier for their lack of efforts to stop human trafficking in the U.S. State Department’s 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report. The central government did not capture or report comprehensive law enforcement data, and it continued to report statistics for crimes outside the definition of trafficking according to international law (including migrant smuggling, child abduction, forced marriage, and fraudulent adoption), making it difficult to assess progress. The same is true of the government’s targeted forced- displacement programs, including the Bingtuan’s construction of new settlements designated for ethnic Han internal migrants, which reportedly disperses Uighur communities and disrupts their livelihoods. For the second consecutive year, the government did not report the extent to which it funded anti-trafficking activities in furtherance of the action plan (more than 55 million renminbi ($8 million) in 2016). Authorities in some localities also subject the families of men arbitrarily detained in Xinjiang to forced labor in their absence. However, authorities did not provide statistics on the number of investigations, prosecutions, or convictions resulting from this campaign. The government decreased efforts to protect victims. Sex trafficking in China is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the People's Republic of China.China, the world's most populous country, has one of the highest rates of human trafficking, including sex trafficking, in the world. Human trafficking of women and children up to the age of 14 is currently criminalised under Article 240, but this does not extend to men, and to that effect to boys over the age of 14. Traffickers lure, drug, detain, or kidnap some North Korean women upon their arrival in China and compel them into prostitution in brothels, through internet sex sites, or in relation to forced marriage. • Ensure authorities do not subject trafficking victims to extended detention, punishment, or deportation. China’s national household registry system (hukou) continues to restrict rural inhabitants’ freedom to legally change their workplace or residence, placing China’s internal migrant population—estimated to exceed 180 million men, women, and children—at high risk of forced labor in brick kilns, coal mines, and factories. Well-organized criminal syndicates and local gangs subject Chinese women and girls to sex trafficking within China. Despite continued reports of law enforcement officials benefiting from, permitting, or directly facilitating sex trafficking and forced labor, the government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of law enforcement officials allegedly involved in the crime. • Cease penalization of victims for unlawful acts their traffickers compelled them to commit. Trafficking survivors said that trusted people, including family members, promised them jobs in China, but instead sold them for the equivalent of US$3,000 to $13,000 to Chinese families. For the second consecutive year, the government did not report the extent to which it funded anti-trafficking activities in furtherance of the action plan (more than 55 million renminbi ($8 million) in 2016). The impact of formal discriminatory employment policies barring Uighurs from jobs in many sectors—including in the annual cotton harvest—reportedly drives thousands of Uighur farmers out of their communities in search of alternative work, placing them at higher risk of forced labor. However, observers noted this assistance was ad hoc and less prevalent among front-line officers working farther inland, where some foreign victims escaped, reported these abusive circumstances to the authorities, and were summarily arrested and forcibly returned to their Chinese “husbands”—sometimes in exchange for bribes from the men’s families. Traffickers typically recruit them from rural areas and take them to urban centers, using a combination of fraudulent job offers and coercion by imposing large travel fees, confiscating passports, confining victims, or physically and financially threatening victims to compel their engagement in commercial sex. Authorities reportedly place older children among these groups in vocational schools, where some may be victims of forced labor. MPS continued to coordinate the anti-trafficking interagency process and led interagency efforts to implement the National Action Plan on Combatting Human Trafficking, including ongoing research into the efficacy of national efforts to combat the crime. For the second consecutive year, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) did not report the number of investigations initiated into possible trafficking cases (1,004 in 2016), although media reports suggested authorities continued to investigate some cases. Learn more about quality higher-education opportunities in the U.S. that you will not find anywhere else in the world. • Institute and systematize proactive, formal procedures to identify trafficking victims throughout the country—including labor trafficking victims, Chinese victims returning from abroad, and victims among vulnerable groups, such as migrant workers, foreign women, and Chinese women and children arrested on “prostitution” charges—and train front-line officers on their implementation. Penalties under this provision were not alone sufficiently stringent; however, Article 241 stipulated that if an individual purchased an abducted woman or child and then subjected them to “forcible sexual relations,” they would face additional penalties under the criminal code’s rape provisions. The government continued to address some of these vulnerabilities by requiring local governments to provide a mechanism for migrant workers to obtain residency permits. PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS: The Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; therefore China remained on Tier 3. State bodies subject members of Muslim minority groups to forced labor as part of arbitrary mass detention and political indoctrination schemes. Various provisions of the criminal code could be used to prosecute sex trafficking offenses. MPS continued to coordinate the anti-trafficking interagency process and led interagency efforts to implement the National Action Plan on Combatting Human Trafficking, including ongoing research into the efficacy of national efforts to combat the crime. Traffickers kidnap or recruit women and girls through marriage brokers and transport them to China, where some are subjected to sex trafficking or forced labor. Some of these businesses operate illegally and take advantage of lax government enforcement. As reported over the past five years, human traffickers subject domestic and foreign individuals to trafficking in China, and they subject Chinese individuals to trafficking abroad. Illicit brokers increasingly facilitate the forced and fraudulent marriage of South Asian, Southeast Asian, Northeast Asian, and African women and girls to Chinese men for fees of up $30,000. It is reported that human trafficking impacts 236 million people in China and Chinese trafficking victims have been transported and found on every single continent around the world. The government decreased law enforcement efforts. Chinese men reportedly engage in child sex tourism in Cambodia and Mongolia. • Respecting due process, vigorously investigate, prosecute, and impose prison sentences on perpetrators of forced labor and sex trafficking, including complicit government officials. For the second consecutive year, the government did not report how many victims it identified, although media reports indicated authorities continued to remove some victims from their exploitative situations. Domestic trafficking is "the most significant problem in China,"13 and an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 victims are traf- The government decreased efforts to protect victims. TRAFFICKING PROFILE. China’s national household registry system (hukou) continues to restrict rural inhabitants’ freedom to legally change their workplace or residence, placing China’s internal migrant population—estimated to exceed 180 million men, women, and children—at high risk of forced labor in … It is a country of origin, destination, and transit for sexually trafficked persons. - Continuing to apply a modern slavery due diligence process. Traffickers subject Chinese men, women, and children to forced labor and sex trafficking in at least 60 other countries. These penalties were sufficiently stringent and commensurate with the penalties prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. Traffickers lure, drug, detain, or kidnap some North Korean women upon their arrival in China and compel them into prostitution in brothels, through internet sex sites, or in relation to forced marriage. Officials found guilty through this process reportedly faced expulsion from the Chinese Communist Party, termination of their official positions, fines, and referral to the judicial system. In previous years, media reported penalties ranging from five months’ imprisonment with fines of 74,000 renminbi ($10,760) to life imprisonment. Penalties under this provision were not alone sufficiently stringent; however, Article 241 stipulated that if an individual purchased an abducted woman or child and then subjected them to “forcible sexual relations,” they would face additional penalties under the criminal code’s rape provisions. Human trafficking not only involves sex and labor, but people are also trafficked for organ harvesting. During the reporting period, the government increased its consultative partnerships with Lao, Mongolian, and Vietnamese law enforcement authorities to jointly address trafficking via the forced and fraudulent marriage of their citizens to Chinese individuals. Implementation of a law placing foreign NGOs in mainland China under MPS supervision continued to impose burdensome requirements and restrictions on the activities of civil society organizations— including those able to provide services for trafficking victims and communities vulnerable to the crime. However, these residency permits were disproportionately unavailable to China’s minorities, exacerbating their constrained access to employment and social services. Authorities engaged in law enforcement cooperation with foreign governments, investigating cases of Chinese citizens subjected to trafficking in Burma, Cambodia, Cyprus, Macau, and Singapore; as part of similar efforts in previous years, Chinese authorities attempted to extradite—and criminally charge—Chinese and Taiwanese individuals subjected to forced labor in Europe. These penalties were sufficiently stringent. Traffickers subject Chinese men, women, and children to forced labor and sex trafficking in at least 60 other countries. For travel to the United States on a temporary basis, including tourism, temporary employment, study and exchange. State-sponsored forced labor is intensifying under the government’s mass detention and political indoctrination campaign against Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang). Bingtuan regiments manage at least 36 agricultural prison farms throughout Xinjiang; unlike the aforementioned mass detention campaign, this system primarily subjects Han Chinese inmates—many of whom may be victims of arbitrary detention—to forced labor. MPS maintained written instructions promulgated in 2016 for law enforcement officers throughout the country aiming to clarify procedures for identifying trafficking victims among individuals in prostitution and forced or fraudulent marriage. Coordinator for the Arctic Region, Bureaus and Offices Reporting Directly to the Secretary, Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, Office of the U.S. Elsewhere, religious and political activists held in legal education facilities continue to report forced labor occurring in pretrial detention and outside of penal sentences. • Increase the transparency of government efforts to combat trafficking and provide disaggregated data on investigations and prosecutions, victim identification, and service provision, including by continuing to share relevant data with international partners. These penalties were sufficiently stringent. The Department places each country in this Report onto one of four tiers, as mandated by the TVPA. • Cease penalization of victims for unlawful acts their traffickers compelled them to commit. The government reported efforts to reduce forced labor by including language in written agreements with foreign businesses and countries explicitly prohibiting trafficking, but authorities were generally unresponsive to allegations of ensuing forced labor. Some law enforcement personnel in neighboring countries reported their Chinese counterparts were unresponsive to requests for bilateral cooperation on cross-border trafficking cases, while others reported China’s cumbersome law enforcement bureaucracy hindered joint operations. In 2019, Human Rights Watch published a heart-wrenching, exhaustive report on the trafficking of Kachin “brides” from Burma to China. Authorities did not condition access to victim care on cooperation with law enforcement, but they did require victims to provide information to police. A small number of Han Chinese individuals may also be in detention within this system. Some law enforcement personnel in neighboring countries reported their Chinese counterparts were unresponsive to requests for bilateral cooperation on cross-border trafficking cases, while others reported China’s cumbersome law enforcement bureaucracy hindered joint operations. Authorities reportedly place older children among these groups in vocational schools, where some may be victims of forced labor. The authors of this study provide a new angle in the analysis of human trafficking by digitizing and analyzing court sentencing documents on trafficking in China during 2014–2015. Traffickers also subject these women to forced labor in agriculture, as hostesses in nightclubs and karaoke bars, in domestic servitude, and at factories. Vietnamese men and women migrate abroad for work independently or through state-owned, private, or joint-stock labor recruitment companies. Most victims are from rural communities or poor areas, who either work in agriculture, are uneducated or unemployed. The criminal code criminalized some forms of sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Law enforcement officials detain some Chinese and foreign women on prostitution charges without due process in “custody and education” centers, where they are subjected to forced labor. The judicial system did not require victims to testify against their traffickers in court and allowed prosecutors to submit previously recorded statements as evidence. In some cases, rural border officials received reports involving the sex trafficking and forced labor of Burmese and Mongolian women and girls via forced and fraudulent marriage to Chinese men, then provided them with temporary shelter and helped to fund and escort their repatriation. The government did not provide sentencing data, but media reports indicated penalties imposed in at least one forced labor case ranged from one to six years’ imprisonment. 2009] GENDERCIDE & SEX TRAFFICKING IN CHINA criminatory treatment of women. In cases where this forced concubinism leads to childbirth, the men and their parents sometimes use the children as collateral to retain the women’s forced labor or sexual slavery, or use the women’s immigration status as coercion to dissuade them from reporting their abuses to the authorities. • Immediately screen individuals suspected of prostitution offenses for sex trafficking indicators and refer identified victims to protection services. Chinese traffickers operating abroad also subject local populations to forced prostitution in several countries in Africa, the Mediterranean region, and South America. For the second consecutive year, the government did not report identifying any trafficking victims or referring them to protective services. PROTECTION Well-organized criminal syndicates and local gangs subject Chinese women and girls to sex trafficking within China. African and Asian men reportedly experience conditions indicative of forced labor aboard Chinese-flagged fishing vessels operating in the Atlantic Ocean; men from other regions may be in forced labor aboard these vessels as well. Despite the existence of these procedures, and contrary to the aforementioned policy, law enforcement officials continued to arrest and detain foreign women on suspicion of prostitution crimes without screening them for indicators of sex trafficking—sometimes for as long as four months—before deporting them for immigration violations. Despite the lack of significant efforts, the government took some steps to address trafficking, including by continuing to cooperate with international authorities to address forced and fraudulent marriages in China, a key trafficking vulnerability for foreign women and girls, and by continuing to seek accountability for officials complicit in commercial sex crimes that may have included sex trafficking. Human Trafficking in China in Numbers. Some Chinese men are reportedly circumventing this brokerage system by traveling to Southeast Asian capitals and entering into legal marriages with local women and girls, then returning to China and compelling them into prostitution. Human trafficking: 629 Pakistani girls sold as brides to China ... All but a handful of the marriages took place in 2018 and up to April 2019. The Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons Act of 2017 criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking and prescribed penalties of up to 15 years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to $10,000, or both if the victim was an adult, and up to 20 years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to $15,000, or both if the victim was under age 18. Despite continued reports of law enforcement officials benefiting from, permitting, or directly facilitating sex trafficking and forced labor, the government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of law enforcement officials allegedly involved in the crime. This is the official website of the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in China. Authorities are increasingly placing the young children of interned Muslims in Xinjiang in state-run boarding schools, orphanages, and “child welfare guidance centers,” and forcing them to participate in political indoctrination activities and report on their families’ religious activities. Traffickers target adults and children with developmental disabilities and children whose parents have left them with relatives to migrate to the cities—estimated at more than 60 million—and subject them to forced labor and forced begging. MPS officials reportedly maintained a procedure to screen for trafficking indicators among individuals arrested for alleged prostitution. • Cease discriminatory hiring and targete displacement policies putting Muslim and other minority communities at risk of trafficking. These penalties were sufficiently stringent and commensurate with the penalties prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. Chinese traffickers subject women and children from neighboring Asian countries, Africa, and the Americas to forced labor and sex trafficking within China. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein. TRAFFICKING PROFILE In 2013, the National People’s Congress ratified a decision to abolish “Re-education through labor” (RTL), a punitive system that subjected individuals to extra-judicial detention involving forced labor, from which the government reportedly profited. There are also reports of Chinese men and their parents deceiving Southeast Asian women and girls into fraudulent marriages in China, then confining them in forced concubinism involving rape leading to forced pregnancy.