A traditional preference for boys, especially in rural areas, and a strict one-child policy have contributed to a rise in the trafficking of children. (AFP)
Chinese police have arrested 301 suspects after rescuing 92 children who were kidnapped for sale, state media said on Saturday, in one of the biggest busts of its kind in years.
Police simultaneously swooped on locations in 11 provinces recently after a six-month investigation, China Central Television and state news agency Xinhua said, quoting the Ministry of Public Security.
An exact date of when the children were rescued and the arrests made was not given.
State media also did not give a breakdown of how many boys and how many girls were kidnapped.
A traditional preference for boys, especially in rural areas, and a strict one-child policy have contributed to a rise in the trafficking of children and women in recent years.
Kidnapped women are sold to men in remote areas who are unable to find brides due to a sex imbalance resulting from the draconian one-child policy, which has also encouraged sex-selective abortions.
The government would impose harsher punishment on people who buy kidnapped children, state television said.
Xinhua said the government would also punish parents who sell their children.
China has trumpeted the success of an intensified crackdown on the kidnapping and sale of children and women recently. In 2011, police said they had rescued more than 13 000 abducted children and 23 000 women over the past two years or so. – Reuters