VIDEO: Emotional scenes as Chinese father reunites with kidnapped son after 24-year search
Guo Gantang hugs his son Zhen at a public event in China.
Gulf Today Report
A Chinese man, who was kidnapped when he was a child, has been reunited with his father after a 24-year search for him, during which the father traveled thousands of kilometers on a motorcycle following tip-offs from police and people.
Authorities said the father was forced to sleep outside, beg for survival at some point but continued to search for his son.
Guo Gantang's son was only two years and five months old when he was kidnapped from the Shandong Province.
He was playing alone outside his home.
His kidnappers sold him to a family, according to a statement issued by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.
Guo was twenty-seven years old when his son was kidnapped, so he quit his job, touring the country looking for him on his motorcycle, on which he put large flags and a picture of his son. He covered 500,000 kilometres and sometimes had to sleep under bridges and beg.
His story was the centerpiece of a film.
The father's struggle raised awareness of the problem of child abduction in China, which is still a sensitive issue.
After a DNA test, the police announced that Guo Zhen, a 26-year-old teacher in central Henan Province, was Guo Gangtang's son.
The meeting took place between them on Sunday, according to the ministry.
China Central Television "CCTV" showed scenes of a father and mother crying while embracing their son. This good news sparked a huge wave of sympathy on social media.
Child trafficking spread in China in the eighties and within a few decades following the implementation of the so-called "one-child" policy.
The kidnappings of boys who were sold to families who wanted male heirs increased due to the favouritism towards boys and the limited number of boys in the country.
Since the launch of a DNA database dedicated to the issue in 2016, Chinese police have helped more than 2,600 people kidnapped as children find their real parents, according to Ministry of Public Security figures.
