China predicts that in 2017-2020 the country will welcome three million newborns each year.
One November day 12 years ago, after school, 5-year-old Cheng Ying stood at the school gate waiting for her mother to pick her up.
However, when she had just left the school about 90 meters, she was caught by a stranger and taken into a taxi.
Ying is one of hundreds of thousands of children missing in China over the past 40 years.
There are no exact statistics on the number of children who go missing in China each year, but some studies estimate the number ranges from 20,000 to 200,000.
The root of the situation of missing children in China is because families, especially in rural areas, like to have many children, especially boys.
A newborn baby boy can be sold hand-to-hand for $18,000 in well-off eastern provinces, according to expert Anqi Shen who works at Britain’s Teesside University.
The journey to find my child is arduous
Chinese police freed 92 children from kidnappers in September 2013.
After being thrown into a taxi, baby Ying fell into the hands of a woman who specializes in kidnapping and trafficking children.
`They beat me and almost starved me,` Ying said, recalling that she was locked in a house with about six other children.
At the age of 7, Ying successfully escaped once.
In the end, the girl was sold to a beekeeping couple, unable to bear children.
`I don’t feel any connection or attachment to them. I always want to leave,` Ying said.
During the 10 years Ying was missing, her parents seemed to live in a nightmare.
At about 2:00 p.m., feeling like she was on fire, she called her husband.
When disaster struck, Zhu’s entire family was preparing to celebrate their second daughter’s 100th birthday.
`Life was very good at that time. Everything was fine. But then my eldest daughter went missing. There are no words to describe that feeling,` Mr. Zhu recalled.
Desperate, he went to the police to report the incident.
The father, in panic and fear, rushed to knock on every door, searched every bus stop and mobilized up to 70 relatives and friends to help.
For the next 10 years, Mr. Zhu quit his job, wandered around the country, posting pictures of his daughter everywhere, asking people to help him share information and taking advantage of social networking sites to spread his family’s story.
On the journey to find his child, he experienced many bitter things, was arrested by the police, chased away by local people, and was cheated by thieves who took advantage of the situation.
According to China’s Ministry of Public Security, scholars have exaggerated the severity of the problem.
On the journey to find his daughter, Mr. Zhu met Wu Xinghu, a father whose one-year-old son was kidnapped one night in December 2008.
`That day was like any other day,` Mr. Wu confided, `I came home after work, and the boy raised his arms. He wanted to hug me. He was so young, he couldn’t speak yet.`
Just a few hours later, his son was kidnapped from his home.
Just like Mr. Zhu, in the process of searching for his child, Mr. Wu encountered many difficulties and obstacles.
`Until the case is resolved, the local police will not accept the case (file),` Mr. Wu said, saying that the police want to cover up missing children cases to protect their achievements in solving crimes.
Mr. Wu said his son is now 9 years old and he cannot know that he was kidnapped.
Chinese people’s perception is gradually changing.
The story has a happy ending
Mr. Cheng Zhu, 43 years old, stood and talked with his daughter Cheng Ying.
Baby Ying, Mr. Zhu’s daughter, is one of the rare victims of child kidnapping and trafficking who returned to her family.
Baby Ying always keeps the image of her parents and family in her mind.
The only thing Ying remembers clearly is `Dabaiyang`.
While sharing her story, Ying happened to talk to a woman who knew the girl’s case very well and moreover helped her track down her father’s contact address.
Just a few hours later, father and son talked to each other.
`Dad?`, the girl asked on the third day after father and daughter contacted each other, `Do you remember the scar on my wrist?`
And it was at that moment that Mr. Zhu knew that he had found his daughter who had been missing for 10 years.
10 days later, Ying returned to her parents’ arms.
`I want to study at a university close to home. I don’t want to be away from my family any longer,` Ying confided.
