Tough stance taken on crimes against minors

Thanks to sustained judicial efforts, crimes against minors in China, such as child theft and trafficking, have seen a significant decline, the nation's top court announced ahead of International Children's Day, which falls on Sunday.

"Once rampant, the crimes of child abduction and trafficking have generally been on a decline since 1992, except for a brief resurgence from 1997 to 2000," the Supreme People's Court said in a report on child-related adjudication, which was released on Friday.

Courts nationwide have maintained a "zero-tolerance" stance against individuals who harm children, with particularly severe punishments for those who commit murder, sexual assault, abduction or abuse of minors, the top court said.

"Such firm determination and harsh penalties have effectively addressed some problems that harm minors and have greatly enhanced the people's sense of security," it added.

In February, Yu Huaying, who abducted and trafficked 17 children for financial gains between 1993 and 2003, was executed by a court in Guizhou province after the top court approved her death sentence.

In another case, a father in Chongqing who threw his two children out of a high-rise apartment window, was executed in early 2024, along with his girlfriend who had encouraged him, after their death penalties were approved by the top court.

Additionally, Chinese courts have imposed tough punishments on adults who lured minors, especially girls under the age of 14, into sending explicit photos or videos, and then used that content to blackmail, or even sexually abuse or rape them.

In 2023, for example, three child rapists — Ni Duqun, Wang Xiaoshan and Sun Baochang — were executed by courts in the provinces of Hubei, Shandong and Henan, respectively.

In the case in Hubei, Ni was found to have raped seven girls, of them six were under 14, by luring them to meet through QQ, an instant messaging tool, between January 2017 and August 2019.

Of the victims, four were raped multiple times, and two became pregnant and suffered miscarriages. Ni was also found to have manipulated these victims, urging them to seek other girls for him to exploit.

"Without hesitation, we have sentenced these criminals to death. This demonstrates that our courts will never tolerate leniency toward those who harm minors," the top court said.

Chinese courts have also cracked down on child-related crimes by optimizing judicial rules and enhancing collaboration with other authorities, striving to prevent such offenses from happening.

Since 2010, the top court has issued a number of judicial interpretations to fight against child trafficking and abduction. In September, for instance, it stipulated that acts of child trafficking, child abduction and the unlawful removal of children from guardianship must also be subject to civil liability.

In November 2022, the top court released a guideline with the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Education, clarifying that people working in the educational industry who commit violent crimes against minors such as sexual assault, abuse, abduction and trafficking will be banned for life from the sector.

While requiring judges across the country to continue these measures to strongly protect minors, the top court also called on them to innovate ways to prevent children from committing offenses, with a focus on improving the quality of child-related case handling.