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In this image taken from a video footage run by China's CCTV via AP Video, Guo Gangtang at right embraces his long lost son Guo Xinzhen during a reunion after 24 years in Liaocheng in Central China's Shandong province on Sunday, July 11, 2021. Guo was abducted as a toddler outside their home. (CCTV via AP Video)
Chinese parents, abducted son reunited after 24 years
''BANGKOK -- After 24 years of heartache and searching, a Chinese couple were reunited with their son who was abducted as a toddler outside their front gate.
Guo Gangtang and his wife, Zhang Wenge, hugged their 26-year-old son with tears in their eyes Sunday at a reunion organized by police in their hometown of Liaocheng in the eastern province of Shandong, according to a video recording released by police.
The story of their reunion after Guo crisscrossed China by motorcycle searching for his son and became an activist who helped police return other missing children to their parents prompted an outpouring of public sympathy and condemnation of abductions.''
''Police experts found Guo Xinzhen in June by searching databases for images of people who looked like he might as an adult, according to a police ministry statement. His identity was confirmed by a DNA test.
The woman and her boyfriend, identified only by the surnames Tang and Hu, were caught and confessed to trafficking three boys, according to the ministry. They have yet to stand trial, but potential penalties range up to death.
Blood samples from Guo Xinzhen's parents were added to an "anti-abduction DNA system," but no matches were found with boys who were believed to have been abducted, the police ministry said.''
''Guo's search inspired the 2015 movie "Lost and Love," written by Sanyuan Peng and starring Hong Kong heartthrob Andy Lau.''
