Health official accused of selling birth certificates on black market

A health official in Longhui county, Hunan province, turned himself in to police on Wednesday over the illegal selling of birth certificates on the black market, police said on Thursday.

The police announcement said that Liu Xin, 41, an official at Longhui county health bureau, was detained on Thursday for further investigation as he is suspected of altering or trading State organ documents.

According to a report on Wednesday by Hunan TV Station, a man named Xiong Mingzhong, a resident of Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, sold birth certificates on the black market for 50,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan ($7,290 to $14,580).

The report said that using such birth certificates children of unknown origin or trafficked children could be registered to a household, avoiding the police's anti-child-trafficking drive.

Xiong told TV reporters that his clients come from seven provinces and regions and that the certificates "are real, because they come from a health official at Longhui county health bureau".

Longhui county police and health bureau opened an investigation into the case after the TV report on Wednesday and found Liu to be the official who provided official birth certificates to Xiong. Liu turned himself in to police later that day.

Further investigations into the case are ongoing and Xiong is wanted by police.