Shanghai police are investigating an online advertisement for the sale of babies that appeared on eBay's Eachnet site, the US online auction house's China website, on October 16.

Baby boys were "going" at 28,000 yuan (US$3,453) each, while girls carried a 13,000 yuan (US$1,603) price tag, according to Eachnet's Tang Lei, a manager with the company.

With the username "Chuangxinzhe Yongyuan," which means "innovator forever," the seller claimed that all the babies, who were to come from Henan Province, would be available within 100 days of birth.

According to Eachnet, the ad was registered in the late evening of October 16.

Although no deals were struck, more than 50 people browsed the posting before it was removed, including one who left a message of enquiry.

There was no response to queries sent to the seller's registered email address.

In the posting, Chuangxinzhe Yongyuan claimed the babies were being sold to help China's millions of infertile couples.

Eachnet retracted the posting after they realized it was advertising the sale of babies and reported the matter to local police.

Police have released no details of their investigation.

According to Tang, the website automatically screens information posted on it, but the word "baby" was not included as a forbidden term because so many baby products are advertised on the site.

A practical joke?

Tang admitted the posting could have been a practical joke. If not, whoever is behind the Chuangxinzhe Yongyuan username could face years in prison or even the death sentence.

According to Chinese law, the abduction of children carries a five-year prison sentence. In some cases, abduction with the intention to sell a child can carry the death penalty. Anyone found guilty of buying a baby can also be prosecuted.

In August this year, the Anfu Intermediate People's Court in Guizhou Province convicted a gang of 45 people that abducted and sold at least 60 children in 2003.

The seven main culprits were sentenced to death, four accomplices were given reprieved death penalties and other gang members received between five and 15 years in prison.

In January 2003, police in Anfu and Guiyang in Guizhou Province began receiving reports of missing children. By mid July, 16 children had been reported missing in Anfu.

At around midnight on March 27, 2003, the gang broke into a house in Wujiaguan Village in the Xixiu District of Anfu. They put a knife to the throat of a woman surnamed Cao and abducted her six-month-old baby.

Broken-hearted parents in Guiyang formed an association and petitioned government departments for help. On October 11, 2003, police in Anfu received a tip-off and arrested gang members the following morning.

Investigations found that the ring had abducted 61 children, mainly boys under five, over the previous 10 months, selling them to buyers in Hebei and Henan provinces.

Only 25 of the children were ever tracked down, and many of the suspects are still at large.

(China Daily October 20, 2005)