15 January
Chinese police have detained at least seven people on suspicion of trafficking babies.
Police found three men in a vehicle with a newborn baby girl with the umbilical cord still attached at a highway tollgate in China's inland area last month.
The men initially told police that they found her in a park the day before. But they admitted to trafficking after investigators found records of exchanges on a mobile phone owned by one of the men on the baby's price and size.
Police say the suspects have traded at least four babies, including a three-day-old one, for about 12,000 dollars.
Child trafficking cases are rampant in China's rural regions amid a shortage in the labor force and in children who can succeed the family business.
The US State Department placed China in the worst category in its 2018 report on human trafficking.
NHK
