"China's Stolen Children" Must-See Documentary on HBO

My cable system has more than 1,000 channels on it, but the viewing choices have been slim pickings lately. My entire family was complaining about it the other night. Finally, I turned it off and read a book instead. I considered canceling the extensive pay cable channels until I was channel surfing last night and found a winning documentary worth watching on HBO.

Thank you HBO for an incredible documentary. Finally, there's a thought-provoking piece to watch. Shockingly, it reveals a crisis of epic proportions that hasn't been exposed until now.

"China's Stolen Children" was fascinating, disturbing and emotional. To think that 70,000 children are being stolen and sold every year in China is shocking. The one-child policy clearly isn't working in China and the system is completely corrupt. When families face hefty fines for a second child or officials come onto your property and take two pigs instead, the system doesn't make sense. The fact that birth certificates aren't even issued for children that aren't recognized by the government is completely absurd. No birth certificates are issued as though the child doesn't exist. Even records of the birth at the hospital do not exist. So, the government won't document in any way, shape or form that the child is alive, but, if you want to sell the child, that seems just fine.

It's surprising that this documentary ever made it to air at all. Actor Ben Kingsley, who narrates the pieces, explained that the Chinese government didn't want the outside world to know about the problem of child abductions. As a result, the film was made undercover. At times, we follow along with the filmmakers in the middle of the night. I wonder what the repercussions will be for the participants, especially the parents of abducted children, who appeared on screen in interviews.

Clearly, child trafficking is a crisis that should have been revealed long ago. The one-child policy itself is 30 years old. But, China has been hiding the problem from the outside world.

Listening to the distraught parents who are missing their young son, who was apparently sold, is heart-breaking. Watching the grandmother revisit every move when her grandson was kidnapped while in her care, takes the viewer on a rollercoaster of emotions. To hear a little boy tell the story of his father selling his little brother, one wonders how this child is going to deal with this loss long-term. And, when a young unmarried couple is forced to sell their daughter because in the eyes of the government the beautiful baby girl doesn't exist, it only raises more questions about what is really being done to change the current system.

Abortions are advertised on the sides of buses in public view as a constant reminder of the reality. Fetuses are often aborted when the parents find out whether the child is going to be a boy or a girl, around the fifth month of pregnancy. Every couple wants to make the family proud by having one boy. If the fetus is female, the probability is higher for an abortion. One woman tells a horror story of being forced by officials to abort her second child when she was 8 or 9 months pregnant, only to have the child live through the process.

This documentary delivers story after story of tragedy that the Western world has never experienced. Honestly, I was shocked that the private detective was able to rescue even one child after being sold.

As the fifth born child in my family, I was constantly reminded that I wouldn't be alive if my parents lived in China. As a girl, my chances of survival would have been slim to none.

This is not just another documentary. This is an education about human rights. "China's Stolen Children" should be required watching. In fact, this documentary alone has made me re-evaluate my cable subscription. I'll be keeping it, pay channels and all, for another year.