VietNamNet Bridge – China's Supreme Court has sentenced to death a woman who is considered an important link in a network of child trafficking from Vietnam, reported Xinhua news on August 16.

Huang Qingheng

According to the news agency, Huang Qingheng, 34, who was supposedly the leader of the child trafficking gang and oncelived in Vietnam, was sentenced to death for trading over 20 infants and babies since 2010.

Vietnamese children were kidnapped to sell to China, mainly to “customers” in Guangdong province. In some cases, pregnant Vietnamese women were brought to China to sell their babies immediately after birth.

Chinese police rescued 11 babies, including 10 Vietnamese aged 10 days to 7 months. They were handed over to Vietnamese authorities, Xinhua reported.

Huang’s gang included 23 people, mainly citizens of China and Vietnam. These people were sentenced from 22 months imprisonment to life imprisonment.

Previously, Huang had been sentenced to death by the Intermediate People's Court in the city of Fangchenggang in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in southern China for the crime of child trafficking in a trial in May 2014. Her entire assets were also confiscated.

Later, Huang had appealed to the court at a higher level. However, the People's Court in Guangxi rejected her appeal in January 2015 and maintained the indictment before forwarding the case to the Supreme Court of China to ratify the death sentence.

Linh Thu