VZCZCXRO2329
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHGH RUEHHM RUEHNH RUEHVC
DE RUEHCN #0052/01 0840305
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 240305Z MAR 08
FM AMCONSUL CHENGDU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2764
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 3356

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENGDU 000052 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  3/23/2033 
TAGS: ELAB ECON PGOV SOCI CH
SUBJECT: TIP IN SOUTHWEST CHINA IMPROVING? AUTHORITIES SHED LITTLE 
LIGHT 
 
CHENGDU 00000052  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: James A. Boughner, Consul General, Chengdu, 
Department of State. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
 
¶1. (C) Summary:  Sichuan and Yunnan authorities insist that 
effective law enforcement, education campaigns, and victim 
assistance programs have dramatically reduced human trafficking 
in southwest China.  But a healthy dose of skepticism seems to 
be in order.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Accompanied by Congenoff, Christine Chan-Downer, 
Northeast Asia Reports Officer in the Office to Monitor and 
Combat Trafficking in Persons visited Chengdu, Sichuan and 
Kunming, Yunnan recently to meet with provincial and local law 
enforcement officials and others engaged in anti-trafficking 
efforts.  A request to visit the Burmese border area near the 
city of Ruili in Yunnan was denied by the Yunnan Foreign Affairs 
Office (FAO). 
 
(SBU) SICHUAN: BRIDES AND KTV 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) According to Sichuan Public Security Bureau (PSB) 
Deputy Director Yue, Sichuan has traditionally served as a 
source of brides for forced marriages, sending young women to 
provinces such as Anhui, Henan, Shanxi, and Shandong.  The 
reason, according to Yue, is that women in those provinces 
prefer to move to richer areas of coastal China in search of 
better marriages, and as a result families turn to the 
underground bride market to find suitable mates for their sons. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Although the bridal traffic continues, said Yue, in 
recent years the trend in trafficking in women has been toward 
the forced supply of sexual services in what he termed 
"underground entertainment sites."  (Note: A short walk around 
Chengdu reveals any number of massage parlors, seedy night 
clubs, and KTV lounges doing business quite openly, although it 
may be that many or most of the women working there do not meet 
the definition of a "victim" of trafficking.  End note.)  Men 
who are trafficked, he said, tended to be sent to illegal 
coalmines with unsafe working conditions and low pay. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Yue and other PSB officers claimed that trafficking had 
declined overall following a 2000 anti-TIP campaign, during 
which over 5,000 cases were investigated (they said the PSB 
continues to rescue 240-300 women each year).  Educational 
campaigns and better coordination among PSB offices had also 
contributed to the decline.  This campaign had supposedly seen 
the creation of an assistance program to victims as well, one 
which provided them with temporary shelter (for about two 
weeks), psychological and medical assistance, vocational 
education, and job placement.  The program is supported only by 
provincial PSB funding in the range of RMB 300,000 to 500,000 
annually (USD$42,000 to $70,500), since the Central Government 
provides "nothing but an unfunded mandate." 
 
(SBU) YUNNAN BRIDES FOR SHANDONG BROTHERS 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Yunnan Women's Federation Women's Rights Division 
Director He Ping delivered a briefing that echoed (somewhat 
eerily) the points delivered by the PSB in Sichuan: a recent 
crackdown had reduced TIP activities considerably; bridal 
trafficking to Anhui, Henan, Shanxi, and Shandong was the 
biggest TIP problem for women, although trafficking for sex 
industry purposes also existed; anti-TIP educational campaigns 
were effective in preventing or reducing trafficking in rural 
areas; a comprehensive system of assistance to victims was 
already in place.  Perhaps the only significant difference in 
the two briefings was that Ms. He stressed the role of the 
provincial and local Women's Federations in assisting the PSB 
and in conducting educational campaigns and assistance to 
victims.  When asked if the PSB or Women's Federation considered 
whether or not foreign victims might be prosecuted for illegal 
migration upon repatriation to Vietnam or Burma, Ms. He stated 
that China could not control their treatment after repatriation. 
 A follow-on briefing by the Yunnan office of the International 
Labor Organization (ILO) repeated this information, adding that 
the ILO had set up anti-TIP offices throughout the province 
about eight years ago, and that its role in Yunnan would be 
ending within the next year. 
 
¶7. (C) Ms. Chan-Downer also visited a facility under 
construction in Kunming, alleged by the Yunnan PSB to be used as 
a shelter for female trafficking victims.  Consisting of 13 
rooms with two double beds in each room, the alleged "rescue 
shelter" also contained an outdoor gym and a rather incongruous 
teahouse area, complete with a large fish tank and an artfully 
 
CHENGDU 00000052  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
designed pond spanned by a tasteful stone bridge.  No victims or 
support staff was present, and the facility gave the overall 
impression of a secluded entertainment venue, or perhaps a quiet 
residential retreat for local officials.  In a short briefing 
conducted by the Yunnan PSB, we were told that the shelter would 
be put into operation one month later.  Asked where victims were 
currently sheltered, PSB officials said that there were very few 
TIP victims in Yunnan, and those few that required assistance 
were kept in rented quarters such as hotel rooms.  However, when 
asked about the victims being assisted in rented quarters at 
present, the officials claimed that there were no trafficking 
victims currently housed in temporary quarters. 
 
(C) COMMENT: SMOKE AND MIRRORS? 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (C) Social conditions in southwest China are ripe for TIP -- 
widespread rural poverty, low education levels (especially among 
girls and women), high rates of drug use, and strong demand for 
workers, prostitutes, and brides.  But given the strong 
similarities in the messages delivered to us in Yunnan and 
Sichuan, along with the scarcely believable "shelter" on display 
in Kunming (and the absence of any TIP victims for us to meet), 
it is difficult to draw any firm conclusions about the reality 
of the two provinces' anti-TIP efforts.  The situation bears 
close watching, and Post will continue to monitor and report on 
the issue. 
BOUGHNER