Police Rescued 11 Trafficked Children in China

Police in China have rescued 11 babies from a trafficking ring and are seeking to track down the parents, an officer told AFP Friday.

Thirty-two suspects have been arrested in connection with the case, which is centred around the Yunnan province in China's southwest and has made national headlines.

China has a flourishing underground child trafficking industry, for which tens of thousands of children are believed to be stolen or sold each year, with demand fuelled by a traditional preference for sons and a one-child limit.

Police in Yunnan began an investigation into the suspected trafficking in February, an officer at the Kaiyuan Railway Police Station told AFP, adding that the children in this case are believed to have been sold to traffickers by parents who had exceeded China's one-child limit.

"So far, we haven't found that any of the children have been stolen," said the officer, who declined to give his name.