Originally published November 27 2005
Shanghai police investigate baby-selling on eBay
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A Chinese subsidiary of eBay posted an ad that offered baby boys for $3,500 and girls for $1,600 within 100 days of birth. The ad was subsequently deleted and the information was turned over to investigators.
Shanghai police are investigating an online ad offering babies for sale on the Chinese subsidiary of auction website eBay, the company said Thursday.
The ad was deleted shortly after it was placed Sunday and relevant information has been turned over to investigators, a spokesman for the Eachnet website said.
Media reports said the ad offered baby boys for 28,000 yuan ($3,500) and girls for 13,000 yuan ($1,600), reflecting the traditional Chinese preference for males.
"Our aim is to send good news to the thousands of couples around the country who are unable to have children," the site was quoted as saying by the Shanghai Morning Post.
A Shanghai police spokeswoman said she had no information on the case and suggested it was being handled by a district bureau.
However, no such case had been registered in Shanghai's Huangpu district, where the site has its offices, said an officer who answered the phone at that police station.
China has an active black market in babies and young women, who are bought or abducted and sold to couples who want another child, a future bride for a son or a household servant.
Chinese law allows punishments up to death for people who sell infants, along with lesser penalties for buyers and brokers.
Tang, the Eachnet spokesman, said the identity of the purported seller was unclear and it wasn't known whether the offer was serious or an attempt at fraud.
The site's parent, eBay, has a computer program that filters out ads containing key words pointing to illegal transactions, Tang said.
The company said it had more than 168 million registered users by the end of the third quarter, a jump of 35% from last year.
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