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DE RUEHC #0447/01 1622041
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TO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING IMMEDIATE 8602
INFO RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU IMMEDIATE 4135
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU IMMEDIATE 0664
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI IMMEDIATE 3988
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG IMMEDIATE 8667

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 STATE 060447 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG CH
SUBJECT: CHINA -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND 
DEMARCHE 
 
REF: A. (A) STATE 59732 
     ¶B. (B) STATE 005577 
 
¶1. This is an action cable; see paras 5 through 7 and 10. 
 
¶2. On June 16, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. EDT, the Secretary will 
release the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report at a 
press conference in the Department's press briefing room. 
This release will receive substantial coverage in domestic 
and foreign news outlets.  Until the time of the Secretary's 
June 16 press conference, any public release of the Report or 
country narratives contained therein is prohibited. 
 
¶3. The Department is hereby providing Post with advance press 
guidance to be used on June 16 or thereafter.  Also provided 
is demarche language to be used in informing the Government 
of the People,s Republic of China of its tier ranking and 
the TIP Report's imminent release.  The text of the TIP 
Report country narrative is provided, both for use in 
informing the Government of the People,s Republic of China 
and in any local media release by Post's public affairs 
section on June 16 or thereafter.  Drawing on information 
provided below in paras 8 and 9, Post may provide the host 
government with the text of the TIP Report narrative no 
earlier than 1200 noon local time Monday June 15 for WHA, AF, 
EUR, and NEA countries and OOB local time Tuesday June 16 for 
SCA and EAP posts.  Please note, however, that any public 
release of the Report's information should not/not precede 
the Secretary's release at 10:00 am EDT on June 16. 
 
¶4. The entire TIP Report will be available on-line at 
www.state.gov/g/tip shortly after the Secretary's June 16 
release.  Hard copies of the Report will be pouched to posts 
in all countries appearing on the Report.  The Secretary's 
statement at the June 16 press event, and the statement of 
and fielding of media questions by G/TIP,s Director and 
Senior Advisor to the Secretary, Ambassador-at-Large Luis 
CdeBaca, will be available on the Department's website 
shortly after the June 16 event.  Ambassador de Baca will 
also hold a general briefing for officials of foreign 
embassies in Washington DC on June 17 at 3:30 pm EDT. 
 
¶5. Action Request: No earlier than 12 noon local time on 
Monday June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA posts and OOB local 
time on Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts, please inform 
the appropriate official in the Government of the People,s 
Republic of China of the June 16 release of the 2009 TIP 
Report, drawing on the points in para 9 (at Post's 
discretion) and including the text of the country narrative 
provided in para 8.  For countries where the State Department 
has lowered the tier ranking, it is particularly important to 
advise governments prior to the Report being released in 
Washington on June 16. 
 
¶6. Action Request continued:  Please note that, for those 
countries which will not receive an "action plan" with 
specific recommendations for improvement, posts should draw 
host governments' attention to the areas for improvement 
identified in the 2009 Report, especially highlighted in the 
"Recommendations" section of the second paragraph of the 
narrative text.  This engagement is important to establishing 
the framework in which the government's performance will be 
judged for the 2010 Report.  If posts have questions about 
which governments will receive an action plan, or how they 
may follow up on the recommendations in the 2009 Report, 
please contact G/TIP and the appropriate regional bureau. 
 
¶7. Action Request continued: On June 16, please be prepared 
to answer media inquiries on the Report's release using the 
press guidance provided in para 11.  If Post wishes, a local 
press statement may be released on or after 10:30 am EDT June 
16, drawing on the press guidance and the text of the TIP 
Report's country narrative provided in para 8. 
 
¶8. Begin Final Text of China,s country narrative in the 2009 
TIP Report: 
 
-------------------------------- 
CHINA (TIER 2 WATCH LIST) 
-------------------------------- 
The People,s Republic of China (PRC) is a source, transit, 
and destination country for men, women, and children 
trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual 
exploitation.  Although the majority of trafficking in the 
 
STATE 00060447  002 OF 008 
 
 
PRC occurs within the country,s borders, there is also 
considerable trafficking of PRC citizens to Africa, other 
parts of Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and 
North America.  Women are lured through false promises of 
legitimate employment and forced into commercial sexual 
exploitation largely in Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, and 
Japan.  Chinese  women and men are smuggled throughout the 
world at great personal financial cost and then forced into 
commercial sexual exploitation or exploitative labor to repay 
debts to traffickers.  Women and children are trafficked to 
China from such countries as Mongolia, Burma, North Korea, 
Russia, Vietnam, Romania, and Ghana for purposes of forced 
labor, marriage, and sexual slavery.  There were new reports 
that Vietnamese men are trafficked to China for forced labor 
and ethnic Hmong girls and women from Vietnam trafficked for 
forced marriages in China.  Some women from Tibet were 
trafficked to Indonesia for forced prostitution.  Some North 
Koreans seeking to leave their country enter northeastern 
China and are subsequently subjected to sexual servitude or 
forced labor.  North Korean women are often sold into forced 
marriages with Chinese nationals, or forced to work in 
internet sex businesses.  Some experts and NGOs suggested 
trafficking in persons has been fueled by economic disparity 
and the effects of population planning policies, and that a 
shortage of marriageable women fuels the demand for abducted 
women, especially in rural areas.  While it is difficult to 
determine if the PRC,s male-female birth ratio imbalance, 
with more males than females, is currently affecting 
trafficking of women for brides, some experts believe that it 
has already or may become a contributing factor. 
 
Forced labor remained a serious problem in penal 
institutions.  This was mainly the product of administrative 
decisions, rather than the result of due process and 
conviction.  Many prisoners and detainees in reeducation 
through labor facilities were required to work, often with no 
remuneration.  Some children are abducted for forced begging 
and thievery in large cities.  There were numerous confirmed 
reports of involuntary servitude of children, migrant 
workers, and abductees in China.  In April 2008, a Chinese 
newspaper uncovered an extensive child forced labor network 
in Guangdong province that reportedly took thousands of 
children as young as seven years old from poor rural areas of 
Sichuan province, populated largely by the Yi minority, to 
work in factories in southeastern China.  According to the 
report, the children were sold in labor markets to factory 
owners and forced to work 10 hours a day, seven days a week, 
for as little as 30 cents per hour.  These children were 
found near Dongguan, where in total over 500 children from 
Sichuan were discovered working in a factory in June 2007. 
In October 2008, a Chinese blogger exposed publicly several 
cases of child labor in Wuhan factories, and reported that 
the factories had evaded detection by receiving advance 
warning of pending labor inspections.  Under the 
government-sanctioned work-study programs, elementary schools 
supplied factories and farms with forced child labor under 
the pretext of vocational training.  Students had no say in 
the terms and conditions of their employment, and little to 
no protection from abusive work practices.  Conditions in 
this program included excessive hours with mandatory 
overtime, dangerous conditions, low pay, and involuntary pay 
deductions.  The Xinjiang provincial government forced 
thousands of local students to labor through &work-study8 
programs in order to meet yearly harvesting quotas.  Overseas 
human rights organizations alleged that government-sponsored 
labor programs forced Uighur girls and young women to work in 
factories in eastern China on false pretenses and without 
regular wages.  During the year, international media reported 
over 300 children, many of them from Xinjiang, were laboring 
in a shoe factory in eastern China as a part of a government 
labor transfer program.  The group included many Uighur 
girls, whose families were reportedly coerced and in some 
cases threatened by government officials to participate in 
the program using fake or swapped identification cards 
provided by the government.  Additionally, authorities in 
Xinjiang reportedly continued to impose forced labor on area 
farmers in predominantly ethnic minority regions.  In recent 
years, organized criminal networks have become more 
sophisticated at cheating and abducting migrant workers, 
including abduction by anesthetizing the often unsupervised 
children of migrant worker parents. 
 
Experts believe that the number of Chinese trafficking 
victims in Europe is growing dramatically, where large 
informal economies create a &pull8 for exploitable labor. 
While some Chinese enter Europe legally and overstay their 
visas, others are smuggled in and work as domestic servants 
and in underground sweatshops.  Some trafficking victims are 
exploited in the sex trade.  Teenage girls from China are 
 
STATE 00060447  003 OF 008 
 
 
trafficked into the UK for prostitution, and Chinese children 
are reportedly trafficked into Sweden by organized criminal 
networks for forced begging elsewhere in Europe.  In February 
2009, seven Chinese sex trafficking victims were rescued in 
Ghana, having been forced into prostitution by Chinese 
traffickers who had promised them jobs as waitresses. 
 
The Chinese government does not fully comply with the minimum 
standards for the elimination of trafficking; however it is 
making significant efforts to do so.  Despite these efforts, 
the Chinese government  did not demonstrate progress in 
combating human trafficking from the previous year, 
particularly in terms of punishment of trafficking crimes and 
the protection of Chinese and foreign victims of trafficking; 
therefore, China is placed on Tier 2 Watch List.  Forced 
labor, especially forced child labor, remains a serious 
problem in the country.  Despite substantial resources, 
during the reporting period, the government did not make 
efforts to improve victim assistance programs.  Protection of 
domestic and foreign victims of trafficking remains 
insufficient.  Victims are sometimes punished for unlawful 
acts that were a direct result of their being trafficked ) 
such as violations of prostitution or immigration/emigration 
controls.  The Chinese government continued to treat North 
Korean trafficking victims as unlawful economic migrants, and 
routinely deported them back to horrendous conditions in 
North Korea.  Additional challenges facing the Chinese 
government include the enormous size of its trafficking 
problem and corruption and complicity in trafficking by some 
local government officials.  Factors that continue to impede 
progress in anti-trafficking efforts include tight controls 
over civil society organizations, restricted access of 
foreign anti-trafficking organizations and the government,s 
systemic lack of transparency. 
 
Recommendations for China:  Revise anti-trafficking laws and 
the National Plan of Action  to criminalize and address all 
forms of labor and sex trafficking in a manner consistent 
with international standards; significantly improve efforts 
to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses and convict 
and punish trafficking offenders, including public officials 
complicit in trafficking; increase efforts to address labor 
trafficking, including prosecuting and punishing recruiters 
and employers who facilitate forced labor and debt bondage, 
and provide protection services to victims of forced labor; 
continue to increase cooperation with foreign governments on 
cross-border trafficking cases; adopt proactive procedures to 
identify victims of trafficking among vulnerable groups, such 
as migrant workers and foreign women and children arrested 
for prostitution; increase efforts to protect and 
rehabilitate both sex and labor trafficking victims; provide 
foreign victims with legal alternatives to removal to 
countries in which they may face hardship or retribution; 
conduct a campaign to reduce the demand for forced labor and 
commercial sex acts; and adhere to its obligations as party 
to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, 
including by not expelling North Koreans protected under 
those treaties and by cooperating with UNHCR in the exercise 
of its functions. 
 
Prosecution 
----------- 
China,s domestic laws do not conform to international 
standards on trafficking; China,s definition of trafficking 
does not prohibit non-physical forms of coercion, fraud, debt 
bondage, involuntary servitude, forced labor, or offenses 
committed against male victims, although some aspects of 
these crimes are addressed in other articles of China,s 
criminal law.  China,s legal definition of trafficking also 
does not automatically regard minors over the age of 14 who 
are subjected to the commercial sex trade as victims.  While 
Article 244 of China,s Criminal Code bans forced labor by 
employers, the prescribed penalties of up to three years, 
imprisonment or a fine under this law are not sufficiently 
stringent.  Additionally, Chinese law does not recognize 
forms of coercion other than abduction as constituting a 
means of trafficking.  Based on China,s limited definition 
of &trafficking,8 and the government,s conflation of human 
smuggling and trafficking offenses, the Ministry of Public 
Security (MPS) reported investigating 2,566 potential 
trafficking cases in 2008.  Law enforcement authorities 
arrested and punished some traffickers, but a lack of 
transparency and due process, as well as a paucity of 
trafficking-specific law enforcement data inhibits an 
accurate assessment of these efforts.  Several foreign 
governments reported a lack of cooperation by Chinese 
authorities in transnational trafficking cases involving 
foreign trafficking victims in China.  During the year, the 
government did not provide the United Nations with data on 
 
STATE 00060447  004 OF 008 
 
 
prosecutions, convictions, or sentences of traffickers. 
Consequently, China was not among the 155 countries covered 
by the UN,s Global Report on Human Trafficking released in 
February 2009.   Government efforts described as addressing 
human trafficking were aimed at sex trafficking during the 
reporting period.  In November 2008, police in Fujian 
province reportedly discovered a trafficking case involving 
18 Vietnamese women who had been trafficked to Yunnan, 
Guangxi and other provinces in China for marriage.  Also in 
Fujian, in December, police arrested 10 members of a criminal 
gang accused of having trafficked 10 female sex workers to 
men in isolated villages for approximately USD 800 to USD 
1,200 each.  In Guizhou Province, official media reported 
that 29 defendants were convicted for trafficking more than 
80 female victims for forced marriage, and the main defendant 
was sentenced to death.  According to official media, police 
in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region rescued 746 children 
from trafficking gangs which had kidnapped and forced them 
into pick-pocketing.  The Xinjiang Public Security Bureau 
reported that 177 suspects were arrested.  Reported incidents 
in 2008 involving forced and child labor reflect continuing 
legal and administrative weaknesses in China,s 
anti-trafficking enforcement.  Subsequent to the April 2008 
discovery of a massive child labor market in Southeast China, 
the Dongguan local government claimed that it found no 
evidence of large-scale child labor during its raids on over 
3,600 work sites in two days.  Nonetheless, raids led to the 
rescue of at least 167 children, according to local police 
sources.   Despite the discovery of child laborers and 
reports that some minors were raped by factory operators, the 
government did not criminally or administratively prosecute 
or convict any employers for any labor offenses.  The 
Guangdong provincial government subsequently denied earlier 
reports and retracted police statements, claiming that police 
had found only six underage workers, none of whom had been 
raped or abducted.  In a child labor case in Wuhan, 
authorities announced a crackdown on child labor in 
small-scale workshops in Wuhan, but there was no further 
reporting on the story.  There were continued reports of 
local officials, complicity in trafficking, including by 
providing advance warning of pending labor inspections and 
brothel raids. The Chinese government has not demonstrated 
concerted efforts to investigate, prosecute, and punish 
government officials for complicity in human trafficking. 
 
Protection 
---------- 
China continued to lack adequate victim protection services 
throughout most the country.  There continued to be no 
dedicated government assistance programs for victims of 
trafficking.  China has an inadequate number of shelters to 
assist trafficking victims, and regularly returns trafficking 
victims to their homes without access to counseling or 
psychological care.  Most of the existing shelters are 
temporary, not exclusive to trafficking victims, and provide 
little or no care to repatriated victims.  Provincial 
women,s federation offices provide counseling on legal 
rights, rehabilitation, and other assistance to trafficking 
victims.  Local governments continue to rely on NGOs and 
international organizations for technical and material 
support to identify victims and provide victim protection 
services.  The government continues to obstruct the 
independent operation of NGOs and international organizations 
that provide assistance on trafficking issues.  Trafficking 
victims were generally repatriated involuntarily without any 
rehabilitation assistance.  There was no reported protection 
or rehabilitation provided to the 167 children rescued from 
factories near Dongguan.  The government has not provided any 
assistance to the Chinese sex trafficking victims identified 
in Ghana, who face threats and retaliation from their 
traffickers if they return to China.  The Chinese government 
continues to lack systematic procedures to identify 
trafficking victims, including victims of sex trafficking, 
among those it arrests for prostitution, in order to refer 
them to organizations providing services and to ensure that 
they are not inappropriately penalized for unlawful acts 
committed as a result of being trafficked.  The All-China 
Women,s Federation (ACWF), a quasi-government entity, 
reported that ongoing problems required intervention to 
protect trafficking victims from unjust punishment.  MPS 
officials stated that repatriated victims of trafficking no 
longer faced fines or other punishment upon their return, but 
authorities acknowledged that Chinese and foreign victims 
sometimes are sentenced or fined because of police 
corruption, the lack of capacity to identify trafficking 
victims, or provisions allowing for the imposition of fines 
on persons traveling without proper documentation.  Some 
border officials are trained by MPS to identify potential 
victims of trafficking.  In October 2008, 200 Burmese women 
 
STATE 00060447  005 OF 008 
 
 
were arrested and jailed in China for immigration violations; 
they had allegedly been smuggled into the country under the 
pretext of finding work and were reportedly sold and forced 
to marry Chinese men.  Reports suggest that many of the women 
were deported to Burma, while others were expected to serve 
three-month prison sentences for violating Chinese 
immigration laws.  The Ministry of Civil Affairs began 
working with the International Organization for Migration 
(IOM) on an IOM-funded training module for the 
identification, protection, and reintegration of trafficking 
victims.  The government does not provide foreign victims 
with legal alternatives to removal to countries in which they 
may face hardship or retribution.  Some trafficking victims 
have faced punishments in the form of fines for leaving China 
without proper authorization 
 
In the year leading up to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic 
Games, Chinese authorities stepped up efforts to locate and 
forcibly repatriate North Korean refugees in China ) 
including trafficking victims ---- in violation of their 
commitments on the humane treatment of refugees under 
international law.   China continues to treat North Korean 
trafficking victims solely as illegal economic migrants and 
reportedly deports a few hundred of them each month to North 
Korea, where they may face severe punishment.   Chinese 
authorities continue to limit the UN High Commissioner for 
Refugees, (UNHCR) access to North Korean refugees in China. 
The lack of access to UNHCR assistance and constant fear of 
forced repatriation by Chinese authorities leaves North 
Korean refugees more vulnerable to human traffickers. 
 
Prevention 
---------- 
China made some effort to prevent trafficking in persons 
during the reporting period.  In light of the size of 
China,s trafficking problem, however, more needs to be done. 
Targeted public awareness campaigns, run by the All-China 
Women,s Federation (ACWF), continued to disseminate 
information on trafficking prevention and focused on reaching 
young female migrant workers.  ACWF also continued to 
identify model communities that protected women's rights, 
offered legal and psychological assistance for victims of 
domestic violence and trafficking, and made available 
shelters for vulnerable women.  Government agencies, 
associations, and youth organizations continued to run 
hotlines for victims of trafficking-related crimes, including 
forced child labor.  Hotlines for migrant workers whose 
rights had been violated were also continued in 15 provinces. 
  Provincial governments in Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guangxi 
continued their own prevention campaigns, including radio 
broadcasts, brochures, performances, poster shows, and 
targeted campaigns to spread the word among Chinese women of 
the dangers of trafficking and how to avoid becoming a 
victim.  In Beijing, the government held an anti-trafficking 
publicity campaign on International Women,s Day to raise 
public awareness of human trafficking and to publicize 
prevention measures.  The national government has not 
addressed two policies that may create vulnerabilities to 
trafficking:  the birth limitation policy that contributes to 
a gender imbalance that some believe has led to bride 
trafficking in the Chinese population, and the unevenly 
implemented hukou (household registration) system that 
controls the movements of internal migrants.  During the 
reporting period, China issued implementation guidelines for 
its 2008 National Plan of Action to define roles and 
responsibilities of relevant agencies, and provincial action 
plans were developed in four provinces.  The Ministry of 
Public Security (MPS) held training courses for approximately 
2,000 police officers in 10 provinces on anti-trafficking 
measures, as well as training on combating cross-border 
trafficking Police officers responsible for anti-trafficking 
measures participated in anti-trafficking and victim 
protection training courses overseas, and the MPS co-hosted 
training sessions with counterparts in Vietnam and Burma. 
The government did not take any noticeable measures during 
the reporting period to reduce the demand for forced labor, 
commercial sex acts, or child sex tourism.  Chinese forces 
participating in peacekeeping initiatives abroad have not 
been implicated in trafficking while overseas, but did not 
receive specific training on trafficking in persons prior to 
deployment.  China has not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol. 
 
¶9. Post may wish to deliver the following points, which offer 
technical and legal background on the TIP Report process, to 
the host government as a non-paper with the above TIP Report 
country narrative: 
 
(begin non-paper) 
 
 
STATE 00060447  006 OF 008 
 
 
-- The U.S. Congress, through its passage of the 2000 
Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended (TVPA), 
requires the Secretary of State to submit an annual Report to 
Congress.  The goal of this Report is to stimulate action and 
create partnerships around the world in the fight against 
modern-day slavery.  The USG approach to combating human 
trafficking follows the TVPA and the standards set forth in 
the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in 
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the 
United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized 
Crime (commonly known as the "Palermo Protocol").  The TVPA 
and the Palermo Protocol recognize that this is a crime in 
which the victims, labor or services (including in the "sex 
industry") are obtained or maintained through force, fraud, 
or coercion, whether overt or through psychological 
manipulation.  While much attention has focused on 
international flows, both the TVPA and the Palermo Protocol 
focus on the exploitation of the victim, and do not require a 
showing that the victim was moved. 
 
-- Recent amendments to the TVPA removed the requirement that 
only countries with a "significant number" of trafficking 
victims be included in the Report. Beginning with the 2009 
TIP Report, countries determined to be a country of origin, 
transit, or destination for victims of severe forms of 
trafficking are included in the Report and assigned to one of 
three tiers.  Countries assessed as meeting the "minimum 
standards for the elimination of severe forms of trafficking" 
set forth in the TVPA are classified as Tier 1.  Countries 
assessed as not fully complying with the minimum standards, 
but making significant efforts to meet those minimum 
standards are classified as Tier 2.  Countries assessed as 
neither complying with the minimum standards nor making 
significant efforts to do so are classified as Tier 3. 
 
-- The TVPA also requires the Secretary of State to provide a 
"Special Watch List" to Congress later in the year. 
Anti-trafficking efforts of the countries on this list are to 
be evaluated again in an Interim Assessment that the 
Secretary of State must provide to Congress by February 1 of 
each year.  Countries are included on the "Special Watch 
List" if they move up in "tier" rankings in the annual TIP 
Report -- from 3 to 2 or from 2 to 1 ) or if they have been 
placed on the Tier 2 Watch List. 
 
-- Tier 2 Watch List consists of Tier 2 countries determined: 
(1) not to have made "increasing efforts" to combat human 
trafficking over the past year; (2) to be making significant 
efforts based on commitments of anti-trafficking reforms over 
the next year, or (3) to have a very significant number of 
trafficking victims or a significantly increasing victim 
population.  As indicated in reftel B, the TVPRA of 2008 
contains a provision requiring that a country that has been 
included on Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years after 
the date of enactment of the TVPRA of 2008 be ranked as Tier 
¶3.  Thus, any automatic downgrade to Tier 3 pursuant to this 
provision would take place, at the earliest, in the 2011 TIP 
Report (i.e., a country would have to be ranked Tier 2 Watch 
List in the 2009 and 2010 Reports before being subject to 
Tier 3 in the 2011 Report).  The new law allows for a waiver 
of this provision for up to two additional years upon a 
determination by the President that the country has developed 
and devoted sufficient resources to a written plan to make 
significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the 
minimum standards. 
 
-- Countries classified as Tier 3 may be subject to statutory 
restrictions for the subsequent fiscal year on 
non-humanitarian and non-trade-related foreign assistance 
and, in some circumstances, withholding of funding for 
participation by government officials or employees in 
educational and cultural exchange programs.   In addition, 
the President could instruct the U.S. executive directors to 
international financial institutions to oppose loans or other 
utilization of funds (other than for humanitarian, 
trade-related or certain types of development assistance) 
with respect to countries on Tier 3.  Countries classified as 
Tier 3 that take strong action within 90 days of the Report's 
release to show significant efforts against trafficking in 
persons, and thereby warrant a reassessment of their Tier 
classification, would avoid such sanctions.  Guidelines for 
such actions are in the DOS-crafted action plans to be shared 
by Posts with host governments. 
 
-- The 2009 TIP Report, issuing as it does in the midst of 
the global financial crisis, highlights high levels of 
trafficking for forced labor in many parts of the world and 
systemic contributing factors to this phenomenon:  fraudulent 
recruitment practices and excessive recruiting fees in 
 
STATE 00060447  007 OF 008 
 
 
workers, home countries; the lack of adequate labor 
protections in both sending and receiving countries; and the 
flawed design of some destination countries, "sponsorship 
systems" that do not give foreign workers adequate legal 
recourse when faced with conditions of forced labor.  As the 
May 2009 ILO Global Report on Forced Labor concluded, forced 
labor victims suffer approximately $20 billion in losses, and 
traffickers, profits are estimated at $31 billion.  The 
current global financial crisis threatens to increase the 
number of victims of forced labor and increase the associated 
"cost of coercion. " 
 
-- The text of the TVPA and amendments can be found on 
website www.state.gov/g/tip. 
 
-- On June 16, 2009, the Secretary of State will release the 
ninth annual TIP Report in a public event at the State 
Department.  We are providing you an advance copy of your 
country's narrative in that report.  Please keep this 
information embargoed until 10:00 am Washington DC time June 
¶16.  The State Department will also hold a general briefing 
for officials of foreign embassies in Washington DC on June 
17 at 3:30 pm EDT. 
 
(end non-paper) 
 
¶10. Posts should make sure that the relevant country 
narrative is readily available on or though the Mission's web 
page in English and appropriate local language(s) as soon as 
possible after the TIP Report is released.  Funding for 
translation costs will be handled as it was for the Human 
Rights Report.  Posts needing financial assistance for 
translation costs should contact their regional bureau,s EX 
office. 
 
¶11. The following is press guidance provided for Post to use 
with local media. 
 
Q1: Why was China again given a ranking of Tier 2 Watch List? 
 
A: The Chinese government does not fully comply with the 
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however 
it is making significant efforts to do so.  Despite these 
significant efforts, the Chinese government did not 
demonstrate progress in its efforts to combat human 
trafficking from the previous year, particularly in terms of 
punishment of trafficking crimes and the protection of 
Chinese and foreign victims of trafficking; therefore, China 
is placed on Tier 2 Watch List for a sixth consecutive year. 
 Forced labor, especially forced child labor, remains a 
serious problem in the country.  Despite substantial 
resources, during the reporting period, the government did 
not make efforts to improve victim assistance programs. 
Protection for domestic and foreign victims of trafficking 
remains insufficient.  Victims are sometimes punished for 
unlawful acts that were a direct result of their being 
trafficked ) such as violations of prostitution or 
immigration/emigration controls.  The Chinese government 
continued to treat North Korean trafficking victims as 
unlawful economic migrants, and routinely deporting them back 
to horrendous conditions in North Korea. Additional 
challenges facing the PRC government include the enormous 
size of its trafficking problem and the significant level of 
corruption and complicity in trafficking by some local 
government officials. 
 
Q2: What progress has China made in the past year? 
 
A: The All-China Women,s Federation (ACWF) continued to 
disseminate information on trafficking prevention and focused 
on reaching young female migrant workers.  Government 
agencies, associations, and youth organizations continued to 
run hotlines for victims of trafficking-related crimes, 
including forced child labor.  During the reporting period, 
China issued implementation guidelines for its 2008 National 
Plan of Action to define roles and responsibilities of 
relevant agencies, and provincial action plans were developed 
in four provinces.   The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) 
held training courses for approximately 2,000 police officers 
in ten provinces on anti-trafficking measures, as well as 
training on combating cross-border trafficking. 
Nevertheless, In light of the size of China,s trafficking 
problem, however, more needs to be done. 
 
Q3: Have there been instances of trafficking in persons 
associated with the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games? 
 
A: In the year leading up to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic 
Games, Chinese authorities stepped up efforts to locate and 
 
STATE 00060447  008 OF 008 
 
 
forcibly repatriate North Korean refugees in China ) 
including trafficking victims -- in violation of their 
commitments on the humane treatment of refugees under 
international law.   China continues to treat North Korean 
trafficking victims solely as illegal economic migrants and 
reportedly deports a few hundred of them each month to North 
Korea, where they may face severe punishment.   Chinese 
authorities continue to limit the UN High Commissioner for 
Refugees, (UNHCR) access to North Korean refugees in China. 
The lack of access to UNHCR assistance and constant fear of 
forced repatriation by Chinese authorities leaves North 
Korean refugees more vulnerable to human traffickers.  The 
2008 Trafficking in Persons Report also noted a Chinese 
factory licensed to produce products bearing the 2008 
Olympics logo that admitted to employing children as young as 
12 years old who were required to work 15 hours a day for 
little pay.  There were no individuals reported prosecuted in 
that case of child labor. 
 
Q4: What efforts could China make to improve its fight 
against trafficking in persons? 
 
A: The Government of China could:  revise anti-trafficking 
laws and the National Plan of Action  to criminalize and 
address all forms of labor and sex trafficking in a manner 
consistent with international standards; significantly 
improve efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking 
offenses and convict and punish trafficking offenders, 
including public officials complicit in trafficking; increase 
efforts to address labor trafficking, including prosecuting 
and punishing recruiters and employers who facilitate forced 
labor and debt bondage, and provide protection services to 
victims of forced labor;  increase cooperation with foreign 
governments on cross-border trafficking cases adopt proactive 
procedures to identify victims of trafficking among 
vulnerable groups, such as migrant workers and foreign women 
and children arrested for prostitution; increase efforts to 
protect and rehabilitate both sex and labor trafficking 
victims; provide foreign victims with legal alternatives to 
removal to countries in which they may face hardship or 
retribution; conduct a campaign to reduce the demand for 
forced labor and commercial sex acts; and adhere to its 
obligations as party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 
1967 Protocol, including by not expelling North Koreans 
protected under those treaties and by cooperating with UNHCR 
in the exercise of its functions. 
 
¶12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the 
preceding action requests. 
CLINTON