China's Ministry of Public Security Thursday issued a class A warrant for 10 major suspects involved in the abduction of women and children in the country.
The list included descriptions of the seven men and three women suspects and made public their identity card numbers and other personal information. The suspects range from 20 to 52 years old.
Under the class A warrant, the ministry offers a reward of 50,000 yuan (about 7,316 U.S. dollars) each for information leading to an arrest.
This was the second most-wanted list of abduction suspects the ministry had issued since it launched a nationwide campaign on April 9 to deal with the rampant smuggling of women and children.
The first list of another ten suspects was released in late April. Local police have arrested four of the suspects, the ministry said.
Among the arrested, Zhang Weizhu, a 35-year-old woman born in southwest Yunnan Province, was allegedly involved in 10 cases of child trafficking in southern Guangdong Province. She was arrested in Zhuhai, Guangdong last month.
The nationwide crackdown will last from April to December this year, according to the ministry.
According to the ministry's figures, police rescued 447 children in 360 human trafficking cases from April 9 to May 25.
About 3,000 child and women abduction cases are recorded and investigated by Chinese authorities annually, but some experts estimate that 10,000 to 20,000 Chinese women or children fall into the hands of kidnappers each year.
The ministry uses several types of warrants, starting with class A for very serious crimes. Class B is for less serious offenses and is generally issued at the request of lower-level authorities.
(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2009)
