A young couple were convicted of selling their 18-day-old daughter via an instant messaging service so they could afford to buy a smartphone and a motorcycle.
According to the Shanghaiist, the couple who are both 19 and hail from the Fujian province in China, began a relationship in 2013. However, they were unable to get married as they were deemed underage by Chinese law.
When the girl, Xiaomei, became pregnant and gave birth to their daughter in 2014, the young father, A Duan, suggested that they sell their child as he considered the infant a burden.
Xiaomei reportedly did not agree with this but consented after she turned to her A Duan’s father for help and he said that sons are preferred over daughters.
The Shanghaiist also reported that A Duan sold their infant via QQ, an instant messaging platform, for 23,000 yuan (S$4,877), which he used to buy an iPhone and a motorbike.
Xiaomei allegedly broke up with him after the incident. A Duan subsequently turned himself in to the local police in June last year after threatening her that he would do so if she refused to be in a relationship with him.
NDTV also quoted Xiaomei as saying that she had been adopted herself and that she did not know that selling her daughter was “illegal”.
A Duan reportedly received a three-year prison sentence while Xiaomei received a suspended two-year sentence.
Late last year, a Malaysian girl was “sold” by her father, who was a suspected drug addict, to a couple in Singapore for $4,000.
Angie Tiong was subsequently reunited with her uncle in Johor Bahru last month.
Sin Chew Daily/ANN, China Press, The Straits Times, The Star/ANN, Yap Yeen Min
prabukm@sph.com.sg
