Chinese couple held for trafficking

A couple in Beijing has been tried on charges of trafficking children after they allegedly sold their newborn daughter to raise money to help rear their two sons, state media reported on Wednesday.

The migrant couple is accused of selling their daughter to a middleman for 10,000 yuan ($1,470) in January as they left the Beijing hospital where she was born, the 'Beijing Times' said.

The middleman is facing similar charges after he sold the girl to another couple for 21,000 yuan, it said.

The three were tried in a Beijing court on Tuesday, but no verdict was reached, the report said.

"Give me back my child, you cheat," Zhao Zhongying, the mother of the child, was quoted as shouting at middleman Wang Jianjun, an illegal taxi driver, as she entered the courtroom.

"I never wanted to sell my child. I only wanted to find a good home for her."

Wang allegedly arranged the sale of the child after Zhao's husband complained about the financial difficulties the family was in while riding in Wang's car.

"I thought if we could sell the girl, we could save money to raise our two boys," the paper quoted the husband as saying.

Trafficking of women and children remains common in China, with many cases often linked to the country's "one-child" birth control policy.

Young women are also often forced into marriages or prostitution.

During a four-month period ending in August, Chinese police arrested more than 800 suspected human traffickers and freed nearly 3,400 women and children, state media reported earlier.