Harsher punishments for human traffickers

DURING HER INTERVIEW with the media, Zhang Baoyan, a delegate to the 13th National People's Congress from Tonghua, Jilin province, advocated harsher punishments for those convicted of trafficking women and children. China Daily reporter Li Yang comments:

Zhang is the head of the nongovernmental organization Bring Baby Home, and founder of the first website in China to help people look for their lost children. Although she has helped more than 2,800 families find their loved ones over the past 12 years, Zhang has realized that she will continue to be busy in the job as long as the penalties for the traffickers and buyers, which are even lighter than those for abduction, remain unchanged.

It is ridiculous that the advance of technology, the development of society and the progress of rule of law in China over the past 40 years have not helped put an end to the crime, which should long ago have been consigned to the past.