All language subtitles for Asias Underworld s02e01 Body Snatchers.eng

With 20,000 Chinese children
are kidnapped every year.

Their purpose,

to feed a voracious baby
trafficking industry

that thrives on high demand
and huge rewards.

If you want to adopt a Chinese baby,

someone, somewhere, can make that happen.

Doctors, officials, orphanages

and even the man on the street
are looking for a piece of the action.

Leaving helpless parents to wonder,
how has this happened?

Who's behind it?

And can anyone stop it?

China.

One of the fastest developing
countries in the world.

An almost completely reformed economy

has lifted millions
of Chinese out of poverty.

But such rapid change has
also opened the door

to a new world of criminal opportunity.

Trading Chinese babies is one of them.

Thousands of Americans want
to adopt a Chinese baby

but the country doesn't
have enough orphans.

So, a supply chain has sprung up
to provide babies by any means possible.

Wang Shu is a lawyer
based in Hunan Province.

His firm has dealt with cases
related to missing babies.

Today, Duan Zilin is a sales assistant
in a supermarket.

She lives a quiet life,
taking care of her children.

But she was once part
of the baby trafficking chain,

acting, together with her family,

as a supplier of over
a hundred babies to orphanages.

It started in 2001,

when Duan's mother received
an interesting proposition

from an orphanage
she had been volunteering at.

The request was not unreasonable.

Because of China's one child policy,

thousands of baby girls
were being abandoned

by couples desperate for a boy.

Faced with a surplus of unwanted girls,

China opened its doors
to international adoptions in 1992.

They soon proved popular among Americans

as the adoption process was
thought to be easier and faster

than it was back home.

With high demand for Chinese babies,

orphanages started paying
people like Duan and her family

to acquire them, no questions asked.

Duan's family started buying infants

from a supplier in Wu Chan city
in Guangdong province,

600 miles away.

Up to 40 babies were available
to them at any one time.

The supplier claimed
they had been abandoned.

Duan didn't ask too many questions.

For Duan and her family,
this was a gold mine.

For the first baby girl they delivered
to the orphanage,

they were paid over 350 dollars,

more than the average monthly salary
for an engineer at the time.

The orphanage, however,
considered this a good deal.

Over five years,

Duan and her family sold
more than a hundred babies.

Massive profits were made
all along the supply chain.

Their supplier made 10,000 dollars,

enough to send her son to college
and pay the family's medical bills.

But the situation was getting out of hand.

Demand was so high and
prices so outrageous

that abducted children started
appearing on the market.

The problem was becoming severe enough
for the government to take notice.

Duan and others like her

were about to find their businesses
attracting unwanted attention.

In 1992,

China legalized international adoptions,

allowing Chinese babies
to find homes outside the country.

But the policy became too successful.

With Americans paying 30,000 dollars
in administrative fees per child,

a baby trafficking industry
has sprung up,

supplying not just abandoned,
but abducted children as well.

Official reports estimate
that 20,000 Chinese children

are kidnapped every year for adoption.

The country's strict family planning laws

could in fact be creating
opportunity for kidnappers.

Before a woman gives birth,

she and her family must apply
for a birth permit.

Officials run a variety of checks,
for example,

on whether the couple is married.

The process can take up to three years.

Unsurprisingly,
many women bypass the system.

Illegal clinics lack
safeguards and security,

making it easier for traffickers
to snatch the baby.

But even those who opt
for the legal route are at risk.

In August 2013,

the deputy director
of Fuping County Maternity Hospital,

Zhang Shuxia was detained
on suspicion of human trafficking.

Zhang, an obstetrician,

allegedly convinced numerous parents
to give up their babies.

Stating that the babies
had serious health conditions,

she would stop parents from seeing them,

and convince parents to give them up.

Investigators knew
that it had to be an inside job.

Following an investigation,

three government officials

and three senior management staff
of the hospital

were sacked in connection to the scandal.

Zhang Shuxia was sentenced to death.

Babies from such scams would end up
in the hands of traffickers,

who would then sell them to orphanages.

One such trafficker was Duan Zilin.

Working with orphanages keen for babies
for international adoption,

Duan and her family scoured the country,

buying babies from suppliers.

After receiving the baby,

the orphanage would falsify paperwork,

stating where the baby was found,
when and by whom.

Then the baby would be put up
for foreign adoption,

probably by Americans.

Since 2000,

more than 65,000 Chinese infants have
been adopted by American families.

It's a huge business.

Baby trafficking was at its most
lucrative in the early 2000s.

But the authorities
started to take action.

In 2002, trafficker Duan Zilin
visited her regular supplier.

Together with her mother and sister,

she purchased six baby girls
for 20 dollars each.

Carrying them in a cardboard box,

she boarded the train for home.

It was on the train that the babies
were discovered by the police.

Duan and her family were arrested
but escaped serious charges.

Upon their release a month later,

Duan and her family continued
trafficking babies.

With the years, their reputation soared.

More and more people approached them
with trafficking opportunities

and their business boomed.

In 2005,

when the family was delivering
three babies to an orphanage,

the police pounced
and arrested them again.

This time, their luck had run out.

In 2006 Duan Zilin and five of her
family members stood trial.

They were sentenced to jail terms
ranging from three to 15 years.

Now, released and retired
from baby trafficking,

Duan still can't quite come
to terms with what happened.

It's an especially bitter pill to swallow

when some culprits
in the baby trafficking business

are none other
than law enforcers themselves.

In China,

with adoption fees reaching up
to 30,000 dollars per baby,

a baby trafficking trade has sprung up.

Babies are acquired through
any means necessary,

so, they can be sold into adoption.

With big profits to be made,

even family planning officials
are in on the act,

taking advantage of China's policies.

The fine in Hunan province, for example,

is over 1,500 dollars for every child
exceeding the quota.

That's more than what the average Chinese
farming household earns in a year.

In some provinces,
the fine is even higher.

With large amounts of money at stake,

whether from fines or adoption fees,

officials prowl neighborhoods
looking for unregistered newborns.

Baby clothes hanging on laundry lines

or the sound of crying could be enough
to give the children away.

Even if a baby is an only child,

it can be seized if it has been adopted
without following proper procedures

or been born out of wedlock.

Yuan Jia Shi,
a village farmer from Hunan Province,

can testify to the cruelty
of losing a child to the agencies.

In adopting a girl,

Yuan was in fact alleviating one
of the problems of the one child policy,

a large number of abandoned baby girls.

Yuan's adopted daughter had
found a loving family,

but even this was not enough to save her
from the hands of the agencies.

One day in 2004, Yuan left for work,

leaving his one-year-old daughter
at home with his elderly mother.

Within minutes of him leaving,
his mother got a visit.

After identifying themselves,

the officials snatched Yuan's little girl
from the hands of Yuan's mother.

In Hunan province, when a child is seized,

local welfare officials must place notices
in the local newspapers for 60 days,

appealing for its parents to pay
the fine to reclaim the child.

But even if they are able to pay,

many farmers are illiterate
and unable to read the notice.

After 60 days,
the baby is labeled an orphan.

Its arrival date is recorded
as its birthday,

its name is changed
and it is put up for adoption.

Yuan never got his daughter back.

By 2005,

with kidnappers,

hospitals and even officials
getting involved,

the Chinese government clamped down.

Hundreds of traffickers
have been arrested,

and tens of thousands
of children rescued.

At the same time,

the conditions for international
adoptions of Chinese children

have become stricter.

Applicants must now meet age,

marital status and income requirements.

Approval to adopt a healthy child
can now take years.

As a result,

the number of adoptions by Americans
fell from around 8,000 in 2005

to around 2,000 in 2013.

These actions seem
to be having a positive impact,

but it remains to be seen whether
baby trafficking in China

can really be stamped out
once and for all.

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