A Chinese couple with seven daughters have reportedly spent over 90,000 yuan (£10,345) buying a son from strangers in order to carry on their family name.
The couple, named Mr and Mrs Chen by media, have been arrested and charged by the authority of Fengshun County in China’s Guangdong Province.
According to a local report, the baby boy, just over a month old, had been abducted and sold to the couple, but Mr and Mrs Chen told the court that they had not been aware of the fact.
The incident was revealed by a recent report from a programmed called ‘Mingsheng 820’ aired on the Meizhou Broadcasting and Television Station.
Mr and Mrs Chen had been married for ‘many years’ and were desperate to have a son because of their ‘traditional mind-set’, said the report.
They had been trying to have a baby boy. However, all of the seven children they have are girls and they are aged between two and 18, Mr Chen told a reporter from Meizhou TV.
The couple who decided to buy a son were reportedly introduced by acquaintances to a family who had a baby boy ‘for sale’.
The family had been named the Wangs. On November 24 last year, they travelled from their home in Shantou city to Fengshun County to meet Mr Wang and their potential son.
Mr Chen later claimed that Mr Wang had ensured them that the baby had not been abducted, but asked them to pay 92,000 yuan (£10,586) as the ‘nutrition fee’.
The couple paid the money and signed an agreement with Mr Wang before taking their son back to Shantou, Mr Chen added.
However, it is said that as soon as they arrived in Shantou, they were arrested by the police from Fengshun County. The couple were informed that the baby had been abducted and trafficked.
The report said the baby had first been sold by a couple from Yunnan to a person known as Peng. Peng later sold the baby to another person known as Wu.
It was Wu who sold the baby to Mr and Mrs Chen and gained a profit of around 6,500 yuan (£748). The Fengshun People’s Court has brought charges on eight people involved in the case on suspicion of human trafficking.
Mr and Mrs Chen have also been charged with buying a child who was abducted. The court is yet to announce a verdict on both cases.
