香港 A couple in southern China were reunited with their missing teenage son in an emotional ceremony on Monday, 结束他们 14 年的搜索，这激发了一部热门电影.
Sun Zhuo, 18, was abducted in the city of Shenzhen in 2007 在年龄 4, but his parents never gave up hope they would see him again.
他的父亲, Sun Haiyang, and mother, Peng Siying, sold properties to fund their search, and offered a reward of up to $ 31,000 for information on his whereabouts, 中国官方媒体报道.
这些年来, Sun Haiyang said he had traveled to nearly every region of China to look for his son, according to a website run by the Ministry of Public Security.
“Dearest,” 一个 2014 film by Hong Kong director Peter Chan based on Sun’s story grossed more than $ 50 million at the box office, 根据IMDb, and brought the pervasive issue of child abduction and trafficking in China into the spotlight.
Sun Zhuo was 4 years old when he was abducted in Shenzhen in 2007.
Experts say the problem was exacerbated by China’s one-child policy, which has been relaxed in recent years. 数十年, those who had a second child were given heavy fines, or made to abort pregnancies.
传统上, 家庭 — especially those in rural areas — viewed boys as more able to provide for the family, and carry on the family line — 驾驶 a black market for infant boys, and pushing many families to give infant girls up for adoption.
Authorities tracked down Sun in the eastern province of Shandong after using facial recognition technology to identify Wu Moulong, the man police accuse of abducting him, the ministry website said.
Sun’s identity was confirmed by DNA analysis, 国家媒体报道.
Wu has been detained in connection with two child abductions, including that of Sun, 警察说. Sun’s adoptive father and mother were bailed pending trial, 国家媒体报道.
In a twist to the tale, Sun told state media he would stay with his adoptive parents because they had raised him for more than 10 years and he was previously unaware of his true lineage.
在下面 Chinese law, the maximum punishment for human trafficking is death, while buyers of trafficked people can be jailed for up to three years.
It’s not clear how many children go missing in China every year, though estimates reach tens of thousands. China is ranked Tier 3 by the US State Department’s anti-trafficking agency — the lowest level, meaning the government “does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.”
According to Chinese authorities, 多于 8,000 abducted children have been reunited with their parents in 2021, with many cases solved using China’s massive police DNA database and technology such as facial recognition.
