TIP IN SOUTHWEST CHINA IMPROVING? AUTHORITIES SHED LITTLE

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