When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

China 2.0

Child Thieves For Hire In China

Kids playing in Hunan Province, China
Kids playing in Hunan Province, China
Laura Lin

A county in China long known for its poets and philosophers is now in the news for something far more notorious — renting out children as thieves for hire.

In Dao county in the southern Chinese province of Hunan, a child can be rented for 200 yuan ($29) a day, or 50,000 yuan ($7200) a year, according to a recent article in the online news outlet Sina.

The website reports that one reason for the popularity of the illegal practice is that parents used to be fined heavily for having more than one child, a Chinese politburo policy that was recently reversed. Renting out an older child was seen as a way to pay for a new arrival.

Recently, police caught three women and three children for stealing, Sina reports. The publication described their modus operandi as such: While one woman keeps an eye out outside the store being targeted, two others distract the store owner. Since no one pays attention to the children, they are free to grab cash and valuables from the cash register, before letting the women know it's time to leave. And if for example they manage to steal an iPhone, the rule is to switch it off immediately and then tug at the skirt of one of the adults.

Police haven't charged the women with theft in this case, Sina reports. Instead, the women involved are accused of inciting children to commit an offense — a more serious charge.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Migrant Lives

What's Driving More Venezuelans To Migrate To The U.S.

With dimmed hopes of a transition from the economic crisis and repressive regime of Nicolas Maduro, many Venezuelans increasingly see the United States, rather than Latin America, as the place to rebuild a life..

Photo of a family of Migrants from Venezuela crossing the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum​

Migrants from Venezuela crossed the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum.

Julio Borges

-Analysis-

Migration has too many elements to count. Beyond the matter of leaving your homeland, the process creates a gaping emptiness inside the migrant — and outside, in their lives. If forced upon someone, it can cause psychological and anthropological harm, as it involves the destruction of roots. That's in fact the case of millions of Venezuelans who have left their country without plans for the future or pleasurable intentions.

Their experience is comparable to paddling desperately in shark-infested waters. As many Mexicans will concur, it is one thing to take a plane, and another to pay a coyote to smuggle you to some place 'safe.'

Venezuela's mass emigration of recent years has evolved in time. Initially, it was the middle and upper classes and especially their youth, migrating to escape the socialist regime's socio-political and economic policies. Evidently, they sought countries with better work, study and business opportunities like the United States, Panama or Spain. The process intensified after 2017 when the regime's erosion of democratic structures and unrelenting economic vandalism were harming all Venezuelans.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

The latest