On April 15, 2009, the alliance was in the news again, this time attracting nationwide attention on television and in print. Reports indicated that a total of 30 parents participated in a “promenade activity,” a term used by domestic media.
These parents converged on the gate of Dongguan Municipal Government. They held up posters with 49 photographs of children and stretched out a banner that read, “Dongguan Parents Award 10 million yuan to Buy Back the Lost Kids.” It was one of the alliance’s many attempts to bring attention to the issue from both the municipal government and the general public.
Holding on to Hope
In the past two decades, the Dongguan municipal government has been unable to keep up with the needs of the exploding migrant population. Walking along the street, the infrastructure is in need of obvious repair, and the shortage of police officers patrolling the city streets is glaring.
“Police forces are dispatched according to the number of permanent local residents, but the larger proportion of the total population in Dongguan are migrants who do not hold permanent residency,” a local police officer told NewsChina On April 9, China’s Ministry of Public Security announced a national campaign to crack down on the trafficking of children and women trafficking. The campaign started in April and is slated to end in December, and has brought more attention to this issue, and has forced the government and police to enhance efforts to solve these cases. An officer told NewsChina that the Dongguan police department had assigned a vice director to be in charge of Zheng’s case.
According to reports publicized by the Dongguan Public Security Bureau on May 5, the local police have solved 122 of the total 243 child abduction cases that happened in Dongguan since 2000, and recovered 138 lost children. However, according to Zheng, among the 180 families registered in the “Dongguan Family Alliance of Lost Children”, so far only eight children of a total of 180 were recovered under the help of local police. The Dongguan Public Security Bureau declined interview requests from NewsChina, explaining that they do not speak to the media about unsolved cases, including the case of Shalong.
“As far as I know, there have been no changes in my son’s case,” said Zheng with a vacant gaze. “Sometimes I don’t know if I was wrong to publicize the information about my son’s abduction, because it might have made the case more difficult to solve. Sometimes I even blame myself, but I really had no other choice.”
In 2006, Zheng and his wife had a new son. During the two-hour interview with NewsChina, the three-year-old quietly played by himself, careful not to interrupt. “I dare not spoil him,” Zheng looked at his well-disciplined son. “He is now the same age as his older brother Shalong, when he was taken.”
The last time Zheng went to Chaoshan was in late 2008. “I waited at the gates of the local schools. I was not allowed to go in to look for my son,” he said. “When I lost him, he was three. But now he is nine, and I don’t think I could recognize him very easily, especially because all the school children wear the same uniform, it might be impossible. I spent ten days searching, but it was all in vain, and I don’t think I could fulfill this mission simply by myself. I need the support of the government.”
The short, slim man steadied himself, and continued, “I won’t stop searching for a single day until he is recovered.”
