Ge Lanzhen and Xu Ruzhen, leaders of a criminal gang...

Ge Lanzhen and Xu Ruzhen, leaders of a criminal gang of 16 people, all of them farmers from Guangnan County, Yunnan Province, were executed in Wenshan after being sentenced to death in November 1999. They had abducted 26 children between March 1993 and November 1997. In a separate case, Zheng Shiyou, a farmer from the Quxian County of Sichuan Province was executed in Datong, Shanxi Province, for abducting 12 women with false promises of job opportunities and selling them in the Shanxi and Hebei provinces. He was also found guilty of raping two of the abducted women. Zheng was given a death sentence by the Datong Intermediate People's Court late in 1999. Sun Zhendong, a farmer from Sihong County of Jiangsu Province, was executed in Suqian also for abducting 11 women in 1998 before he was caught by police. He was given the death sentence in December 1999 by the Suqian Intermediate People's Court in Jiangsu Province.