Chinese Man Finds Kidnapped Son After 14 Years, Furious Over Kidnapper's 5-Year Prison Sentence

"Weak Punishment for Kidnapping, Urging Severe Penalty Through Appeal"
Film 'Chin-aideo' Produced to Desperately Search for Missing Children

A Chinese man who dramatically found his abducted child after 14 years expressed his intention to appeal, claiming that the court's punishment of the perpetrators was insufficient.

Sun Haiyang and his wife reunited with their abducted son (right) after 14 years.
[Photo by Overseas Network Capture]

According to local media reports including Global Times on the 14th, the Nanshan District People's Court in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, sentenced the Wu brothers to 5 years and 2 years in prison respectively for child abduction and child concealment crimes. Additionally, the elder brother Wu, who abducted the children, was ordered to compensate 420,000 yuan (approximately 78 million KRW) each to the two abducted children and their families.

In October and December 2007, Wu abducted Sun Mo, then 4 years old, and Fu Mo, also 4 years old at the time, hiding them at his younger brother Wu's house before taking them to their hometown in Shandong Province and having them adopted by a childless relative and his elder brother respectively. It was confirmed that elder brother Wu received 30,000 yuan (approximately 5.6 million KRW) in the process.

Immediately after the verdict, the parents of Sun and Fu said, "We found our abducted children after 14 years, but we cannot accept that the perpetrators who abducted two young children were only sentenced to 5 years in prison," expressing their intention to appeal.

Sun Haiyang, father of Sun, pleaded, "The court applied the crime of abduction instead of child trafficking, which could have led to harsher punishment," and added, "We will strengthen the evidence to prove trafficking and ensure they are severely punished." He also expressed dissatisfaction with the court's compensation ruling, saying, "We spent over 420,000 yuan just searching for my son."

After launching an investigation into a series of child disappearances, the public security authorities arrested the Wu brothers in September 2021. Sun and Fu were dramatically reunited with their families after 14 years.

Sun Haiyang’s story, who traveled nationwide offering a reward of 200,000 yuan (approximately 37 million KRW) to find his missing son, was made into the film "Dear Child" (親愛的), which was released in 2014 and sparked significant social impact by portraying the hardships of families desperately searching for missing children. In response, public security authorities began operating a missing children information sharing system from 2016. Through facial recognition technology and genetic testing, over 8,000 missing children across China have been identified.

Nevertheless, it is still estimated that around 20,000 children are abducted annually in China and adopted by families domestically and abroad.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.