Story By: Lee Bullen,Sub Editor: Joseph Golder,Agency: Asia Wire Report

A determined dad has rescued his 12-year-old son a decade after he was abducted as a toddler by child traffickers who sold him to another family.

According to local media, 40-year-old Liu Liqin’s 10-year search for his boy ended last month after a DNA test confirmed his identity and the police retrieved him from a man who paid 25,000 CNY (2,750 GBP) to buy little Liu Jingjun from a human trafficker in 2010.

In April 2010, two-year-old Jingjun was playing with his sister outside their home in the city of Taiyuan in the north-eastern Chinese province of Shanxi.

His sister went to get a snack and when she returned, her little brother had reportedly been abducted.

During his 10-year search for his son, Liqin said: “I have been deceived by fraudsters and lost tens of thousands in the process, but I didn’t ignore any tips that might lead to my son.”

In May 2018, Liqin opened an account on the Kuaishou video and streaming platform and uploaded videos of missing children he was looking for with a parents group he joined, including images of his young son.

In July, an anonymous netizen sent the dad a private message saying that his son was in the county of Jiaocheng.

Liqin did not take the message seriously at first and the same netizen got in touch five months later asking why he hadn’t followed up on the time, this time including a full address.

The father visited the county in December to look up the address and took a “blurry photo of the kid” adding that he thought he “looked identical” to his son who was only two years old when he was abducted.

He later sent his younger brother Liu Lilong to take a better photo of the boy and after successfully getting some snaps of the 12-year-old, they ran them through an online platform for finding missing children.

The result showed a 67 percent match and the platform recommended a DNA test.

The family decided to obtain strands of hair from the boy for the DNA test which came back positive, according to local media.

Reports said the police retrieved Jingjun from the address in Jiaocheng on 2nd January, and a man surnamed Zhang told them that he paid 25,000 CNY (2,750 GBP) to buy the boy from a human trafficker 10 years ago.

The police said that Zhang has been kept in a detention centre since last month and officers have managed to arrest the suspected trafficker.

Liqin said he is rebuilding his relationship with his son and encouraged other parents in the same situation not to give up hope.

He commented: “My journey to find my son has ended, but I’m still doing volunteer work to help families become reunited.

“I hope those who haven’t found their children can be encouraged by my story so we can fight to get their families back together.”

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