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Chinese fake birth certificate scandal linked to trafficking fears
Hospitals in Hubei, Guangxi and Guangdong have been accused of providing false documents that can be used to register kidnapped babies under false names.
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- Hospitals in Hubei, Guangxi and Guangdong have been accused of providing false documents that can be used to register kidnapped babies under false names
- Police have detained several suspects and the national regulator has promised further action, including nationwide checks on medical certificates
The Jiangiao Hospital in Xiangyany is at the centre of the scandal
China’s top health regulator is sending teams to several provinces to investigate a fake birth certificates scandal that has heighten concerns about human trafficking.
Hospital staff in several cities across the country have been accused of selling fake birth certificates, which could be used to register kidnapped children with the local police and hide their true identity.
The scandal broke earlier this month when Shangguan Zhengyi, a long-term campaigner against child abduction, said he had found evidence that the director of a hospital in Xiangyang, a city in the central province of Hubei, was selling birth certificates, vaccine records and even babies to black market agents across the country.
Shangguan wrote on the social media platform Weibo that he had spent a year undercover investigating the city’s Jianqiao Hospital, adding: “Buyers only needed to provide identity information and pay 96,000 yuan (US$13,200) … The entire process can be completed within seven days.”
He added that the hospital provided the standard information provided for newborn children, which can then be used to register the fake identity with the authorities.
Following his exposé, hospitals in Nanning, in the southern region of Guangxi and Foshan in Guangdong have also been accused of providing fake birth certificates.
In Xiangyang 10 suspects have been detained over their alleged involvement in the scam and the local government said earlier this week that several doctors and nurses have had their certificates to practice revoked.
In Foshan the hospital at the centre of the claims has been closed, while in Nanning hospital chiefs have been detained and the local authorities are investigating further.
On Friday the National Health Commission vowed further action, saying it would work with the police to investigate all cases and invited members of the public to report cases.
“We do not tolerate any action that harms the rights and interests of children and the public … especially the forgery of medical birth certificates,” the commission said.
It has already sent investigative teams to Hubei, Guangdong and Guangxi and said it will next carry out nationwide checks on the issuing of medical certificates.
Child trafficking has been rampant in China in the past decades, driven by the traditional preference of sons and the lingering impact of the now-scrapped one-child policy.
Families wishing to buy a boy could get in touch with agents across the country who would connect them to trafficking networks.
The Chinese government has been working to address these issues and introduced stronger measures to protect children and target traffickers, who would often abduct children from their families.
In September, Yu Huaying was sentenced to death by a court in the southern province of Guizhou for trafficking 11 children in a case dating back to the 1990s.
The Guiyang Intermediate People’s Court said her crimes were “particularly severe” and had caused “extremely significant” social harm.
Despite the lifting of both the one and two-child limits in recent years, the country saw its first population decline in six decades last year as the overall population dropped by 850,000 people to 1.41 billion.
Mothers in China had 9.56 million babies in 2022 – the lowest total in the nation’s modern history and the first time the figure fell below 10 million.
