Human Trafficking and China: Challenges of Domestic Criminalisation and Interpretation

In recent years, the Chinese government has notably begun to address the issue of trafficking in persons through several high-profile national initiatives. The State Council of the People’s Republic of China released the country’s first national anti-trafficking plan in December 2007, followed by China’s accession to the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children in February 2010. However, tackling human trafficking is a serious domestic challenge. This article argues that China’s response to its trafficking problem is obstructed by a legal definition in its criminal law that falls short of international standards. These shortfalls include the exclusion of adult male victims and predicating domestic criminalisation on the purpose of selling a person as opposed to the element of exploitation. Because the offence of trafficking is defined and applied differently in China, examining these particular aspects of the domestic criminal offence is critical to a fuller understanding of human trafficking in the country. This article discusses these important ramifications and also traces the legal history of China’s criminalisation of trafficking since the adoption of the country’s first criminal law in 1979, focusing on the disappearance of an inclusive, gender-neutral approach to the crime of human trafficking in the Chinese context.