Chinese Authorities Hindering Search of Missing Children

“Search for missing son. Selling assets to offer 100,000 yuan reward.”

This sign outside a small cell phone store in Shenzhen, southern Guangdong Province is a plea from a desperate father.

Peng Gaofeng is the owner of this store. In March 2008, his four year old son was abducted from right in front of it.

Unfortunately, Peng is not the only one. Sun Yanghai, who owns a bun shop [first picture in the footage] says his son went missing in October 2007.

Both say local police have security footage showing the kidnappings, but authorities are not helping with their search efforts.

[Sun Yanghai, Father of Missing Son]: 
“We have nowhere to tell our story. Our letters to the central government never get sent. The Chinese government is very dark. We tried to petition, but they become annoyed and say that we deserved this. Many police said that the parents deserved this.”

In October, a group of parents from Xian in Shaanxi Province tried to travel around China to search for their children. But just a day after they left, police stopped them.

[Chen Zhu, Organizer of Search Effort]: 
“Now the Chinese Public Security Bureau is scared we will involve foreign media. They won’t allow our search cars to go anywhere. They are scared of things like this.”

Thousands of children are abducted each year in China, though it’s hard to know exactly how many. The victims are often sold on the black market to families with no male heirs. They may also be sold into child labor or prostitution.

(NTDTV)