The rate of kidnapping and selling of women in China has increased to such an extent that the state has been prompted to conduct a series of campaigns in an attempt to eliminate it. This article identifies the ways in which development of the legal regulatory framework has been shaped by official perceptions about the causes of the problem and the methods that may be best adopted to deal with it. It examines some of the main problems of enforcement, structural and practical. The article argues that, although the moral opprobrium directed against kidnappers is clear, there is a degree of ambivalence about the extent of the wrongdoing of other actors who purchase a woman, fail to rescue her, or actively prevent her rescue.

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