Lin Min linmin67@hotmail.com NEWS about a U.S. teacher who sexually exploited a student whom he taught in China hit a nerve among Chinese parents last week. Curtis J. Baldwin, 47, on Oct. 5 pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to sexually exploiting one of his former students by attempting to blackmail her into sending him pornographic images. After returning to America, Baldwin tried to blackmail the 12-year-old student he had taught at an EF Education First school in China into sending him pornographic images, according to news reports last week. Baldwin is not the first case involving a foreign national abusing or sexually exploiting children in China. In 2014, an American man who worked as an English teacher in Shanghai was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the United States for sexually abusing children. The man, Hector Orjuela Jr., 47, molested two girls under 12 at a Shanghai international school and abused an underage girl in Maryland, the U.S., in 2012. In June 2013, Shanghai police arrested 32-year-old teacher David McMahon after he was accused of molesting six of his students, four girls and two boys aged 6 to 10. While cases involving a foreigner tend to catch more media attention and lead to trending posts on social media, news media should provide a bigger picture and inform the general public of the full magnitude of sex crimes against children in the country. The sheer numbers of sex crimes against children are stunning. Chinese prosecutors charged 10,603, 13,445 and 19,338 suspects for raping and molesting minors in 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively, according to official figures. So far this year, the number of such cases has reached more than 12,000. These figures do not include many children who suffered in silence because they simply could not understand it was a crime or dared not speak out. Court records show most sex offenses against minors are perpetrated by acquaintances and many are repeat offenders. Another factor that makes uncovering such crimes more difficult is that more and more perpetrators are using social media to sexually exploit underage students. Schools and training centers are the major battlegrounds for the country to fight sex crimes against young children. It has become imperative for China to launch a nationwide vetting system for schools to ward off convicted pedophiles, child molesters and other sex offenders. In 2019, the procuratorate of Chongqing Municipality launched an inquiry platform that enables schools to check whether a prospective teacher or staff member is a previously convicted sex offender. Such a system should be perfected as soon as possible and expanded to become a national network. The vetting and disqualification system for teachers should also be expanded to cover other professions that involve close contact with children such as pediatricians, staff at children entertainment venues and orphanage workers. China should also work with other countries to grant mutual access to registries or databases of convicted sex offenders, as an increasing number of foreign teachers are working in China. The biggest challenge, however, is how to protect millions of “left-behind” children whose parents are migrant workers living in other cities. A teacher in Youxian County in Hunan Province stood trial in 2016 over charges of sexual assault after 23 girls came forward to say that they had been molested by the man over a three-year period. The teacher targeted particularly vulnerable victims, as 18 of the 23 girls were “left-behind” children. “We were ashamed to tell our grandparents. Every time my mother called, she would tell me to study hard and listen to my teachers. I could not bring myself to tell her what was happening over the phone,” one of the victims told Xinhua. Media reports have said China has more than 60 million left-behind children, and they are at greater risk of falling victim to sexual assault. Awareness campaigns should be launched to make children, their guardians and migrant-worker parents more aware of sexual abuse and how to prevent it while at the same time schools and the rest of society should take better care of left-behind children, the most vulnerable group. (The author is a deputy editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Daily.) | 