By This is an incredibly tragic story coming out of China:
Whenever Deng Huidong sees a little boy around 3 years of age, she can’t help but wonder if he’s her son. Her son, Ye Ruicong, was snatched by human traffickers more than a year ago when he was just 9 months old.
“I imagine how tall he would be, how fast he could run,” Huidong said. “I take photos of boys who are about the same age to see; this way I can recognize him if we ever meet one day.”
Huidong believes Ruicong was sold, possibly within hours, to a family without a son looking for a male heir.
Males come with a premium price tag in China. During a videotaped confession, a woman caught trafficking children two years ago told police that boys can sell for up to $1,200, girls for just more than $200.
Ruicong was gone in an instant. Recalling the abduction, Huidong said a white van slowly drove by while she was just outside her home with her daughter and son. The van stopped and reversed to the Deng household. The doors opened and a man leaned out and grabbed Ruicong. The van then sped off.
“It all happened within seconds; they didn’t even get out of the car.”
Huidong gave chase on foot, screaming. A stranger on a motorcycle offered to help and together they chased the van until they reached a police car.
“I went in that damn police car but after a only a few seconds, they took a sudden turn down another road. I asked why but they just kept silent. I was crying and asking; they simply didn’t reply. Later at the police station, I asked why and he told me he was off duty, so it was some one else’s responsibility to catch the traffickers.” [CNN]
Read the rest, but it is incredible how incompetent the Chinese police are in regards to the kidnapping of children. As bad as Korean police can be at times, I have a hard time believing that Korean police would be as indifference to the kidnapping of children as the Chinese police appear to be. Hopefully this parents can eventually locate their children but as long at the authorities are so incompetent it appears unlikely.
12:41 pm on August 11th, 2009 1
Incompetent, or on the take. How horrible…
7:05 pm on August 11th, 2009 2
Curious ROK Drop readers might follow the link to that CNN article wondering if this happened in one of the two provinces bordering North Korea.
Instead it was in a city near Hong Kong. Dongguan is notorious throughout the country as the kidnapping capital of China. The Dongguan mafia not only kidnaps kids; they have been known to take visiting Hong Kong business people hostage as well.
I live in Guangzhou which is not far from Dongguan; nobody ever wants to go there because of its bad reputation. Most foreigners outside of China have never heard of Dongguan. It is mainly a light industrial factory town supporting Hong Kong manufacturing companies. It's definitely not on anybody's sightseeing itinerary.
11:23 pm on August 11th, 2009 3
Spelunker,
Thanks for the background information. If this activity is being limited to that area than maybe the cops are being paid off by the local thugs to do nothing about it?
2:07 am on August 12th, 2009 4
I would say the police was corrupt.
She might have been coned by the guy with the motorbike and the police.
8:48 am on March 10th, 2010 5
..awww am so sorry about that you must felt awful
… thank you 
for the story though i really need some information am defrnatly going to use your story as my school project about china…! ..i hope one day you will find your son…!