Parents: Chinese officials took babies

TIANXI, China, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- Chinese parents say they have been forced by local officials to give up children for adoption if they violated the country's restrictions on family size.

After years of silence, parents are coming forward to say their children were taken by greedy officials seeking to claim up to $3,000 per child in adoption fees, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

One of the parents, Yang Shuiying of the southern province of Guizhou, told the newspaper she was unaware of laws barring such actions when a local official showed up at her door five years ago and took away her 4-month-old daughter, saying he would spare her the fine for violating China's one-child policy. But, Yang told the Times, the man also warned her not to tell anyone what he had done.

Ina Hut, who last month resigned as the head of the Netherlands' largest adoption agency out of concern about baby trafficking, told the Times, "In the beginning, I think, adoption from China was a very good thing because there were so many abandoned girls. But then it became a supply-and-demand-driven market and a lot of people at the local level were making too much money."