BEIJING (AFP) – A woman in China suspected of being involved in the trafficking of 118 baby girls has been arrested after four years on the run, state press reported Tuesday. Ji Xiulan, believed to be aged in her 60s, had been a fugitive since the trafficking ring was busted in 2003 but was arrested in a village in central China's Henan province on June 15, the Beijing Times reported. The 2003 arrest of the ringleaders of the gang exposed a network of trafficking in baby girls that spread from Guangxi to Henan, Anhui and Hubei provinces in central and eastern China, the report said. The case broke when police found 28 drugged and tied-up baby girls — none over three months old — in bags on board a bus bound for northern cities. In July 2004, 54 people from Yulin city in Guangxi region were convicted of trafficking 118 girls between 2001 and 2003. The case has been linked to China's "one child" family planning policy that has sharpened traditional values preferring boys over girls and leading to many mothers selling or giving away their baby daughters in the hopes of later having a son. read more

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