Child snatchers executed in China

Six people have been executed in southwestern China for kidnapping and selling more than 100 women and children.

The six were leading members of three separate criminal rings that abducted women and children in Yunnan, one of China’s poorest provinces.

Most executions in China are with a bullet in the back of the head or neck.

Those abducted were taken to wealthier coastal provinces such Guangdong and Fujian. The women were sold as wives. Guan said most or all the children were boys, sold to families desperate for a male heir.

In one instance, four of the six convicts beat a man named Wang Zhenggang senseless and took his 18-month-old son for sale.

The executions highlighted the trafficking of women and children still prevalent in many areas of China despite official efforts to stamp it out.

Last year, courts in Yunnan convicted 1,523 people on charges of human trafficking, according to the state-run Chinanews Web site.