Couple sells baby daughter for iPhone

A Shanghai couple faces jail for alleged human trafficking
after "selling" their baby daughter and spending the money
on an iPhone, expensive trainers and other luxury goods.
The pair, identified in local media only by their surnames,
Mr Teng and Ms Zhang, put their third child up for
adoption and were arrested by Shanghai prosecutors after
they accepted money for the child.
They had been seeking between 30,000 yuan and 50,000
yuan (£3,000-£5,000) for the girl, who was advertised
before she was born.
The couple already had two boys, but earlier this year Ms
Zhang found herself "accidentally pregnant", the Liberation
Daily newspaper reported.
Both Teng and Zhang were unemployed, poorly educated
and living off their parents. As soon as Ms Zhang began to
show, she lied to her neighbours and said that she had a
stomach tumour, using her illness as a cover. She then gave
birth at home.
The investigators said the couple had told them they wanted
the girl to have a better upbringing than they could afford,
since they already had two children.
"We did not give the child away to obtain profit, but to give
the child better guarantees," one had told them, the
newspaper reported.
Last year, a teenager sold his kidney and used the proceeds
to buy an iPhone and iPad.
One posting on Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of the
banned Twitter network, said: "This is good business – no
capital, huge profit and no need to sell kidneys."
Last month, Apple launched the iPhone 5s, including a
gold-coloured model, and the more budget iPhone 5c in
China. The expensive model is outselling the cheaper one
by two to one, as people opt for the status symbol over the
cheaper model. The gold-coloured model is particularly
popular.
Human trafficking is a major problem in China, as the
traditional preference for boys over girls, especially in rural
areas, and the one-child policy of population control, have
seen a rise in the number of boys kidnapped and sold, often
to childless couples.
However, there is also a growing market for girls. Some
families from farming communities in the countryside sell
their female babies for cash because boys are considered
more valuable at home.
Last year, Chinese law enforcement agencies broke up
child-trafficking rings in 15 provinces and arrested 802
people, after babies were auctioned off to the highest bidder
for up to 50,000 yuan (£5,000).
And police in China rescued more than 24,000 kidnapped
women and children nationwide last year, as part of an
ongoing crackdown on human trafficking.