Baby Girl put up for Auction on Taobao

[Netease] On the afternoon of October 14th MOP BBS appeared a new post, quickly attracted netizens’ attention. Titled with “Putting up their own child for auction, what kind of parents are they?” the post attached with 2 Taobao website screenshots. (Taobao: is a online shopping marketplace for consumers in China. The EBay like auction website.)

According to the screenshots, the seller was from Zhangshu, Jiangxi province putting his baby up for auction on his online store, starting bid was 1 yuan, seller will pay for the shipping cost. In the description it wrote, baby is the daughter of his sister, was born on April 14 2008, “because we want a boy, therefore decided to give (baby girl) away to family of fate” According to the information, baby’s father has good health, graduated from junior college for professional training. Baby’s mother has “O” blood type, fair skinned, big eyes, “kid’s also got the big eyes, very cute, hope everyone will think for the child”.

In the end, seller also said, sincere buyer could meet her in personal. He provided 2 pictures of the baby girl, taken when she was just born and when she was at 1 year old, fair-skinned and chubby, very cute.

The post rapidly spread and shocked many netizens. Netizen “An” from Douban (豆瓣网) said this was the most “stupefied” (囧) online store. MOP netizen cried out “Human traffickers have opened online store?” More people criticized parents being irresponsible, “Why give birth to the baby if they didn’t even want to keep her? How could they easily sell her online? What kind of people are they?” There were also netizens thought this might be a hoax.

On the 15th, this store was shut down by Taobao.

Taobao’s public relations department said in the afternoon they had received reports saying that someone was selling baby on Taobao. After they found the online store, they directly took the “product” off the shelf, and shut down the account. “This was a violation of the law and regulations.” But as far as the specific information about the closed store and the date which it started the baby auction, Taobao said they were not clear.

October 14, media contacted this online store seller according to the information on the posted screenshots. A 25 year old man with last name Yu, from Zhangshu Jiangxi Province said, baby girl was his sister’s daughter, and did not know that the shop was already shut down for investigation.

Yu said their family was not well-off. His bother in-law was the only son and their family always wanted a boy. For this reason, he put his niece’s pictures on the online store. Before this, his online store only sold things from his home that he did not need anymore, such as DVD, alarm clock and so on. However he repeatedly stressed that “I am not a human trafficker, it is adoption, and we do not require any money or material things in return.

After the information went online, there was a man from Anhui province contacted him before. He was a doctor, the couple did not have any child and also always wanted a girl, so they showed interest to adopt the baby girl. Then because his sister was reluctant, he did not respond to the potential “buyer”. Subsequently his mother also yelled at him, “no matter how hard it would be, must raise the child yourself”.

“Mainly it is up to my sister, if she continues to consider, we can go to an official adoption website, find the appropriate kind-hearted people.” What is appropriate? Yu said, “A family in normal conditions, both man and woman should have legitimate jobs and really treat the baby girl well.”

As for what Yu said “this is adoption, not violating the laws and regulations”, Sichuan Lushi Law Firm attorney Pu Kui (蒲葵) said that it is not accurate. According to the Adoption Act, there are strict rules for the adopter, the donor for adoption, the person to be adopted and related conditions. For example, “person to be adopted must be less than 14 years of age and must be an orphan who lost both birth parents.”, and “Donors for the adoption must be the guardian of orphans, or social welfare agencies, or birth parents who have special difficulties, inability to raise their children.” Otherwise, violators may be constituted the crime of human trafficking babies, and subject to criminal charges. And this man’s condition did not appear to meet those rules.