THE Chinese new year, which this year falls on February 10th, is a time of family reunions. But Xiao Chaohua is preparing to spend his sixth new year without his son, who was abducted in 2007 by suspected child traffickers. China’s one-child policy has fuelled demand for children like his, thousands of whom are snatched and sold every year to desperate, usually boy-less, couples. Spurred by the campaigning of parents like Mr Xiao, the government is starting to acknowledge the practice more openly. But curbing it is proving tough.
Mr Xiao has been trying the hard way to raise awareness of the crime; driving around the country in a minivan covered with posters of missing children. One of them features his son, then five years old, dressed up for a school photograph in a white jacket with red lapels (see picture). Mr Xiao, who lives in a village near Tongzhou, one of Beijing’s satellite towns, says he has spent as much as 400,000 yuan ($64,300) of his own money on the project. He says there are other parents elsewhere in China who tour the country in similarly bedecked vehicles.
