Story Behind 'Shao' Orphans Story

Journalist Pang Xiaoming resigned from Caixin last week. Having been released from his official reporter role, Pang was able to tell the story behind his signature work 'Shao Orphans' and the story of his own, in which he had to change his name several times, playing mouse and cat game with bureaucrats at the Central Propaganda Ministry.

Pang's haunted journey started at China Economic Times. His investigative report on substandard construction materials in building the high speed rail system made himself a prey of the always alarmed Central Propaganda Ministry. Pang changed his name to Shangguan Aoming to work at Southern Metropolitan In-Depth News.

His signature reporting on 'Shao Orphans' once again exposed himself to the Propaganda Ministry. The censor police was able to match the two names, and Caixin was ordered to fire Pang.

Caixin is known as the most daring mouth piece in mainland China, mostly thanks to a chief editor Hu Shuli. Pang was instead instructed by his boss to make up a new name. Pang used 'Huang Yimeng', a pun on 'but a dream'. Hu found it too pessimistic for her taste and changed it to 'Zheng Dao', a pun on 'right road'. With he new names, Pang was able to return to news reporting until he was caught on by the censor police again. Pang was reassigned to desk jobs.

In April, Hu felt time to test water and activated Pang. Four month later, Pang's report on Fushun flooding casualty number contradicted the official proved data. He was caught by the Central Propaganda Ministry for the last time.

As all media in China, Caixin is a subsidiary of Zhejiang Daily, the official publication of the Provincial Propaganda Department of Zhejiang CCP. All reporters in China are government officials.

No Child Trafficking in Hunan

Today another investigation of the Shao Orphans incident was concluded by the Hunan Communist Party. "No Child Trafficking Operation Was Found", concluded the task force.

Twelve Party members were expelled from the Party, but no fault was found of the government operation.

Not sure when was this round of investigation started, and who was involved. There had been several official investigations launched by the local government after the scandal was broken out by oversea medias. Most recently, the New York Times carried the story on September 18, 2011. All previous investigations concluded no fault committed by any person or government agency.

The newest conclusion followed the suit of previous in denying any wrong doing of the more than dozens provincial government agencies of wrong doings, and insisting that no law had been broken. However, the statement did not answer questions such as why the orphanage documented those children as 'someone left at the front door of the orphanage', rather than 'delivered by the police' as how it took place; also why social agencies fabricated a different set of identification for those children so that they could be marketed as 'orphans'. In a layman's eyes, it's obvious some laws must have been broken by someone, unless it's in an absolute lawless country.

One Hundred and One Dalmatians

The plot was familiar, a pretty woman stole a lovely dog, but the story took place in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

The dog belongs to Handing Pet Club of Shanghai. The government run Hanghzou TV, under the propaganda department, borrowed it for a pet program. Then the TV station refused to return it. When the pet shop owner, a businessman from Taiwan asked for the dog, he was told the TV station already produced a new set of identification papers for the dog. Now the dog is officially belong to a producer of the program. The owner posted the original contract and all communications in written and oral forms. All proved the program 'borrowed' the dog. The owner filed a complaint to the police, but police refused to take actions, citing the new ID papers.
And this is exactly the same trick played by the Family Planning Agencies in Shaoyang, Hunan Province. They took away children from farm families by force, in name of cracking down violations of family planning policy. Many of the children take away were 'legal' first child. But when they put together proper document, they were told the children were already sold to the US for adoption with another set of ID (to prove they are orphans).
Shao Orphans and Hangzhou dog are all victim of communist government. And they were all made known because of final stage of their journey. Shao Orphans were sold to the US by the government. The dog ended in a young, beautiful woman's house. Shaoyang government claimed not responsible because the children were already in the US. Hangzhou government claimed not responsible as the dog now belong to the producer, not the government propaganda TV.

The woman's name is Ai Jing, born Oct 20, 1987; educated in the Great Britain. Of course the incident caught public attention, thanks to her good looking. Oh well.

A forgotten accident

64 people lost their lives when a ferry sunk near a sand filed in Shaoyang, Hunan Province on September 9, 2011. The same area where children were taken away by government agencies to be sold to adoptive families for profit.

The ferry was certified to a capacity of 30, but carried more than 100 passengers, mostly local middle school students going home on the Moon Festival vacation.

Official Xinhua News reported the death toll as 8, later revised to 11. Numerous sources and photos from the scene showed bodies of dozens, and a body count of 64. Nobody knows how many were on the boat, so 64 is only a lower bound.

Unlike the bullet train accident, the ferry tragedy did not raise much attention online. It was already forgotten two days later.

Parents of 'Shao Orphans' Arrested

The two leading parents of 'Shao Orphans' were arrested on June 22, 2011 by Shaoyang police on sex charges.

After the broke of scandal of several Chinese government agency, including many provincial level agencies engaged child trafficking on May 9, 2011, Longhui County, Shaoyang Prefecture, and Hunan Province promised to investigate. The investigation disputed all 'rumors' spared on the Internet, and cleared the local governments of any wrongdoing, as a spokesperson told the official Renmin of the CCP Central Propaganda Department on July 14, 2011. Parents alleged their children were taken away by local officials citing family planing violations (most of these children were only child of a family, some have all proper papers, some do not have proper papers due to varies reasons). Health, police and court systems forged document to make these children 'orphans' so that they may qualify for international adoption. Then these children were sold to adoptive families, most Americans', for profit. Because many of these children were named 'Shao', the scandal were referred 'Shao Orphans' in news.

The 'Shao Orphans' is not an isolated incident. Before and after the alleged time frame when the children were taken by force by government officials in Shaoyang, Hunan, several other cases in other provinces went to court trail when many other state run orphanages were found actively engaging in child trafficking for profit. In some cases, state orphanages were found paying for mob to steal babies, so that they could be sold to western families for adoption.

While the parents are preparing for legal actions, the two leading parents were arrested by police, accusing them of buying sex.