BEIJING - POLICE in north China have busted a ring of baby traffickers suspected of pocketing up to 400,000 yuan (S$80,800) through the sale of 52 children, state media reported on Friday.

Police arrested 42 suspected ring members who allegedly trafficked 19 boys and 33 girls in northern Hebei and Shanxi provinces as well as eastern Shandong and the capital Beijing, Xinhua news agency said.

The case came to light after Zhao Dongsheng and his two sons confessed to police that they had bought 13 babies from two women living in Shanxi's Yingxian county in May, the report said.

Subsequent investigations uncovered a wide trafficking network where middlemen were paid up to 2,000 yuan for locating children for sale or helping sellers find buyers, it said.

Ring members allegedly convinced rural families to give up unwanted babies and sold the children to childless couples, making an average profit of 10,000 yuan for a boy and 6,000 yuan for a girl, the report said.

The trafficking of women and children remains common in China, with many women forced into prostitution, state media reports have said. Women are also trafficked to be sold to men in remote areas who are unable to find brides, a phenomenon often linked to a rising sex imbalance stemming from China's one-child policy, which has encouraged sex-selective abortions. -- AFP