The latest from Next Media Animation irreverently covers the increasing adoption of Chinese babies by American families. Worth it for images of Chinese babies phoning in toddler troops to totter through American streets with AK47s. Less funny is the snatching up of adopted children from two-child families in China, sadly actually a problem. more ›

On February 2, a four-year-old boy was kidnapped in Fujian province. The next day, a post appeared on a anti-trafficking weibo (micro-blogging) account describing the child and asking for help: more ›

We'd like to take this time to direct special attention to Charles Custer (captain of one of our favorite China blogs) and his new project: a documentary about kidnapped children in China. They are currently trying to raise funds on Kickstarter to finish it off. more ›

Looks like September was a bad month for baby smugglers. Most recently, two people were sentenced to death yesterday by a court in Fujian province for the abduction and sale of 46 baby boys, according to Shanghai Daily. The two, along with 11 others involved, sold the babies (all aged 1 year or younger) for up to $6,000 a child. more ›

If the news this week is anything to go by, it's not too bad a week for women here in China. Sure, a UNDP report calculated that there were 96 million of us missing in East Asia - but we knew that already (and besides, at least in the cities, the gap seems to be narrowing). Anyway, here's three reasons why the last few days have been pretty stellar on the femme front. more ›

The Chinese government has kicked itself into gear finding the hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of children that go missing in China each year, thanks probably in part to the sudden media attention the issue garnered last April when hundreds of parents set to the streets in a peaceful march, begging local and national bureaus for help. As part of the government-sponsored efforts, they've set up this website: "Babies Looking for Home", which cycles through pictures of 60 children who were kidnapped from their families and were recently recovered in police stings. more ›

Five sex slaves, including two minors, have been rescued from Changning, according to Shanghai Daily. They had been abducted from their home provinces and forced into prostitution here in Shanghai. Police arrested 24 suspects and pinpointed a total of seven gangs as the masterminds behind this human exploitation operation, and also arranged raids in Hubei to catch another gang. Let's hope that these women can now return to their home provinces and live unthreatened - and maybe, one day, we can actually put some sensible laws on prostitution in place to make sure that stories like this are much more rare. more ›

Thankfully, it looks like the story of Euna Lee and Laura Ling is not yet set to end with 12 years in a North Korean prison. Ex-Prez Bill Clinton is now reportedly on his way to Pyongyang to negotiate the release of the two American journalists. "As soon as he arrives, he will be entering negotiations with the North for the release of the female journalists," a Yonhap source was quoted as saying. Lee and Ling were sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp after being found guilty of illegal entry, espionage and hostility towards North Koreans. They had been filming along the border, allegedly shooting a documentary for Current TV on the human trafficking of North Korean women into China. more ›

The thousands of children kidnapped every year and the ensuing media attention has led to China finally starting up a nationwide crackdown on human trafficking, which began on April 9. more ›

• China database to track children [BBC] "China is setting up a DNA database to help trace missing children, as the authorities struggle to tackle people trafficking. By the end of the month, a network of more than 200 DNA centres is due to be set up. Thousands of children in China are stolen or sold each year."
• More on Beijing doping: cyclist, runner, walker join list [LA Times] "Five down, one to go." On the list of athletes at the Beijing Olympics who doped: German cycler Stefan Schumacher, Croation 800-meter runner Vanja Persic and Greek race walker Athania Tsoumeleka.
• China announces regulations for financial information in settlement with US, Europe [AP] "Beijing announced rules that ease controls on foreign financial information providers Thursday under an agreement with the U.S., Europe and Canada, but said those already operating in China must apply for permission to continue. The rules eliminate a requirement that foreign providers must work through a Chinese agent and reduce the amount of information they must disclose about their operations."

Hundreds of parents set to the streets on April 15th in a peaceful march, begging for help in finding their missing children. Originally reported by the New Express (translated by Danwei), the parents claim that about 1,000 children have gone missing from the Dongguan area since 2007. At their wits end, they've set out to draw more attention to the apparent, widespread abduction problem. more ›

• China: “Destroy Japanese Anime!” [Sankaku Complex] "A recent comment by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao decrying the lack of Chinese anime has incited a flurry of online support, with Chinese net users vigorously denouncing Japanese anime."
• Chinese Hunger for Sons Fuels Boys’ Abductions [NYTimes] "These and thousands of other children stolen from the teeming industrial hubs of China’s Pearl River Delta have never been recovered by their parents or by the police. But anecdotal evidence suggests the children do not travel far. Although some are sold to buyers in Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam, most of the boys are purchased domestically by families desperate for a male heir, parents of abducted children and some law enforcement officials who have investigated the matter say."
• Bill Schiller on one man's quest [TheStar.com] "In China, noted designer and blogger Ai Wei Wei is on something of a lonely quest for justice. The Star's Bill Schiller explains, via Skype, from Beijing."

Those of you that were fans of the gritty documentary realism of Li Yang's first feature, Blind Shaft, will probably take an intuitive liking to Blind Mountain for that very reason. Li Yang's use of regular folks--non-actors--always feels like a breath of fresh air, especially after watching movie/pop-star bloated films we've recently watched, such as Lust, Caution and King of California. The story: it's the early 1990s somewhere in bumblefuck northwestern China, and a Bai... more ›