After 24 years of heartache and a seemingly never-ending search, Guo Gangtang and his wife, Zhang Wenge, were reunited with their son who was abducted at just 2 ½ years old.  The son, Guo Xinzhen, was grabbed by a woman and her boyfriend at the family’s front gate and taken to the Beibei province just outside of Beijing. From there, he was sold to a couple in central China. 

Abductions of children for sale are reported often in China, a problem largely due to restrictions that until 2015 only allowed urban couples to have one child. Police said they have arrested two people who confessed to kidnapping and trafficking Xinzhen.

Authorities collected blood and DNA samples that ultimately led them to finding Xinzhen. He is now an adult living in Henan province.

Xinzhen’s father, Gangtang, never stopped looking for his son. After his son went missing, Gangtang rode a motorbike throughout China, carried a bag of fliers, and even inspired a 2015 movie, “Lost and Love.” While Gangtang was unlucky in finding his own son, he helped reunite more than 100 other abducted children with their families.

The family shared a tearful embrace at a family reunion arranged by the police in Liaocheng, Shandong province on July 11, 2021. Xinzhen will stay in Henan but plans to visit his biological parents regularly. “He is a great father,” Xinzhen was quoted as saying to reporters. “I am proud of him.”

Image Source: CNN