Contact: Anne Roback Morse, Population Research Institute, 540-660-2733

WASHINGTON, June 21, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ -- The US State Department yesterday released its yearly, "Trafficking in Persons Report." China received an automatic downgrade to the lowest ranking, Tier 3, for being a destination country for sex-trafficking. The State Department acknowledged the one-child policy as the "key source of demand" for sex-trafficking and forced prostitution within the country, but remained silent regarding the abolition of the harmful policy in its list of policy recommendations for China.

The one-child policy came into effect in 1979 in an attempt to stabilize the country's population. Now, a generation later, the policy has caused sex-selective abortion and infanticide within the country on a gargantuan scale. Due to the policy, there are currently 37,000,000 more males than females in China -- that's about the entire population of California.

The one-child policy created the shortage of females which currently fuels the demand for prostitution and sex-trafficking within China.

The State Department reported that women and girls are currently being trafficked into China from the neighboring countries of Burma and Vietnam. However, Vietnam also has an imbalanced sex-ratio due to sex-selective abortions, and Burma has just imposed a two-child policy on it's Rohingya population. If current trends continue, sex-trafficking in the region will only deteriorate.

US President, Barack Obama, now has 45-90 days to decide on a course of action for the offending countries -- including invoking sanctions against China.

The State Department needs to recommend that China revoke the one-child policy. Repealing the policy will not heal the wounds already inflicted upon China, nor restore the innocence of the trafficked girls, but revoking the policy will stop the spread of the demographic disease which currently ravages China and its neighbors.