About 20,000 children are abducted every year in China. Most are never recovered, which makes the story of Peng Gaofeng all the more astounding.

 

Three years ago, Peng’s son, Peng Wenle, nicknamed “Le Le,” was kidnapped outside his father’s mobile phone store in Shenzhen. Security cameras captured the abduction, but police were unable to track down the culprit.

 

Peng did not give up. He carried out his own search and public campaign to find his son, until authorities warned him to stop, claiming that he was disrupting the country’s social harmony.

 

The determined father then turned to Twitter-like microblogs which have exploded in popularity within the past year. A photo of Le Le was transmitted to two million Internet users, one of whom recognized the child, who was living thousands of miles away in Jiangsu province. The discovery resulted in Peng being reunited with Le Le and a big celebration back home in Qianjiang.

 

The child had evidently been kidnapped by his godfather, who wanted a son to look after him when he grew old. Instead, the godfather died last year.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Peng Gaofeng Finds His Son (by Deng Fei, iFeng/EastSouthWestNorth)

Kidnapped Toddler Found by China Internet Campaign (by Damian Grammaticas BBC News)

‘I Didn’t Look after My Child’ (by Adrienne Mong, NBC News)