MOM WHO HELPED REUNITE 29 KIDS FINDS HER SON AFTER 32 YEARS
A Chinese mother who helped reunite 29 other children with their families has finally found her own son, 32 years after he was taken from a hotel entrance in Xi’an. Li Jingzhi and her husband, Mao Zhenjing, met Mao Yin, now 34, at a police news conference on May 18, 2020, after police said he had allegedly been sold as a boy to a childless couple.
“I would like to thank the tens of thousands of people who helped us,” Li said at the event.
Mao Yin was two years old when he vanished, according to the BBC. On October 17, 1988, his father was bringing him home from nursery in Xi’an when the boy asked for a drink of water.
They stopped at a hotel entrance. Mao Zhenjing looked away for a moment while he cooled down some hot water, and his son was gone.
100,000 flyers and 300 leads
The family searched in and around Xi’an and put up posters. At one point they thought they had found him, but it was a false alarm.
Li quit her job and handed out about 100,000 flyers across more than 10 provinces and municipalities. She went on Chinese television shows, including The X Factor, to appeal for help. The South China Morning Post reported that she followed 300 leads, and none panned out.
In 2007 she began volunteering with Baby Come Back Home, a group that helps parents look for missing children. Chinese state media reported that she helped reunite 29 children with their families while her own son was still missing.
In an interview with the South China Morning Post in January 2020, before he was found, she described her son as a baby as “very clever, cute, and healthy.”
The tip from Sichuan
In April 2020, police received a tip about a man in Sichuan province, roughly 1,000 km (620 miles) from Xi’an, who had been adopted as a baby years earlier. Al Jazeera reported that police also used facial-recognition technology, aging a childhood photo of Mao and comparing the result with a national database.
Police tracked down the man, now 34, and a DNA test showed he was related to Mao Zhenjing and Li. He had been renamed Gu Ningning and ran a home-decoration business. Police said he had allegedly been sold as a boy for 6,000 yuan.
Li got the news on May 10, 2020, which was Mother’s Day in China. She told the BBC that the Xi’an Public Security Bureau said: “Mao Yin has been found.”
“This is the best gift I have ever got,” she said.
What came next
Asked about the future, Mao said he was “not sure.” He said he planned to spend time with his parents, and Al Jazeera reported that he would move to Xi’an to live with them.
Li had no plans to step back. She said she intended to keep working with Baby Come Back Home, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that she would continue efforts to fight abduction crimes.
China had no official figures on child trafficking at the time. Baby Come Back Home’s website listed 14,893 posts from people looking for missing boys and 7,411 looking for girls. The BBC cited a 2015 estimate of 20,000 children abducted in China each year.
The Ministry of Public Security set up a DNA database in 2009, which the BBC said had helped find more than 6,000 missing children. In May 2016 it launched a system called Reunion, which by June 2019 had led to more than 4,000 children finding their families.
The investigation into Mao’s 1988 disappearance was still ongoing.
