Child trafficker sentenced to death for trafficking 17 children after China court’s retrial

Yu Huaying, who was accused of child trafficking, was sentenced once again to death on Friday by Intermediate People's Court of Guiyang in Southwest China's Guizhou Province in the first-instance verdict of a retrial.

Yu was also deprived of her political rights for life, and had her personal property confiscated, per the verdict. According to reports from The Paper, victims and their relatives, including Yang Niuhua and Chen Jianghai, attended the hearing to listen to the verdict.

The court verdict stated that evidence regarding Yu's abduction and trafficking of 17 children are clear. Yu engaged in premeditated child trafficking, seeking opportunities to find children in Guizhou, Yunnan provinces and Chongqing Municipality. After committing the crimes, she quickly transferred the children to Handan in North China's Hebei, where they were sold through intermediaries. The means of committing the crimes were highly consistent, and through repeated trafficking over a long period of time, a complete criminal chain of child trafficking was formed.

The evidence in the case confirmed that Yu played a pivotal role and was the principal perpetrator and should be punished according to all the crimes she participated in, per the court.

The court also said Yu was captured in 2004 by public security authorities for abducting children in Yunnan. At that time, she was using a fake identity and did not confess to her crimes. She was sentenced under the false ID to eight years. In June 2022, after being arrested by the public security authorities of Guiyang again, Yu still did not voluntarily confess to the criminal facts and showed no signs of remorse.

The defendant Yu Huaying trafficked 17 children, resulting in the separation of 12 families and the severing of familial bonds. The parents of the 17 children have endured years of hardship in their search for their children. After failing to find them, some parents succumbed to depression to death, while others experienced broken marriages and shattered families, according to the court verdict.

The consequences of Yu's crimes are particularly severe and should be punished harshly according to the law. Although the defendant pleaded guilty in court and showed some signs of remorse, this is not sufficient to warrant a lighter sentence. There is insufficient evidence to confirm whether Yu abused the children during the trafficking, but this does not affect the sentence of Yu, according to the verdict.

Yu's case has captured nationwide attention since she was arrested again in 2022.

In September 2023, the Guiyang Intermediate People's Court had initially sentenced Yu Huaying to death for the crime of child trafficking, noting that the circumstances were particularly severe and had a particularly negative impact. On November 28, 2023, the case was heard in the second instance at the Guizhou Provincial High People's Court.

On January 8, 2024, the High People's Court of Guizhou Province made a second-instance ruling in the case of Yu Huaying, sending it back for retrial. The court found that the original judgment had overlooked other criminal facts related to Yu's child trafficking, and some facts were unclear.

On October 11, 2024, the retrial of Yu's child trafficking case was held, during which the prosecution increased the number of children allegedly trafficked by Yu from 11 to 17. The prosecuratorate recommended a death sentence for Yu, according to media reports.