A Chinese has found his son, kidnapped as a child, the authorities announced on Tuesday.

The man searched for him for twenty-four years and rode thousands of kilometers on motorcycles across China.

Guo Gangtang's son was barely two years and five months old when he was abducted outside the family home in East Shandong Province, while playing unsupervised.

His captors sold him to a family, China's Ministry of Public Security said in a statement.

[trending] #AndyLau congratulates Guo Gangtang for reuniting with his son, who was abducted at age 2, after 24 yrs.

Andy Lau's character in the 2015 movie #LostandLove was based on Guo.



“Hope more families who have been split apart can be reunited”



pic.twitter.com/LWsJ28QRNV

- cdrama tweets (@dramapotatoe) July 13, 2021

Identified after a DNA test

Child trafficking flourished in China in the 1980s, following the application of the so-called “one-child” policy.

The traditional preference for sons, coupled with birth restrictions, has accentuated the kidnappings of boys, who are then sold to couples desiring a male heir.

After a DNA test, the police told Guo Gangtang that a 26-year-old teacher living in Henan Province (Central) was indeed her missing son.

The reunion was organized this Sunday, reports the ministry.

Public television CCTV on Tuesday showed footage of the father crying in his hands and the mother sobbing, hugging their found son.

2,600 kidnapped children found since 2016

"All that comes now is happiness," the father said in a video released by the China News Service news agency. Aged 27 when his son disappeared, the father had resigned to travel the country on a motorcycle, on which large flags with the photo of his son had been attached. He traveled 500,000 kilometers across China, sometimes being forced to sleep under bridges or beg. A journey that inspired a film.

Guo Gangtang's fight also helped raise awareness among the Chinese general public about the issue of child abduction, a still sensitive subject.

The news of this family reunion caused a wave of emotion on the social network Weibo.

“Parents never abandon their children!

Guo Gangtang's fight shows how deep a father's love is, ”one user wrote, in tune with general opinion.

Since the launch of a dedicated DNA database in 2016, police have helped more than 2,600 kidnapped children find their biological parents, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

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