The authorities urged the kingpins behind a child-begging ring to turn themselves in. Media reports revealed that possibly thousands of children kidnapped or lured to villages in Fuyang, Anhui , were deliberately disfigured and disabled, then forced to beg in big cities.
A directive issued by the Gongji township government on Tuesday asked ringleaders from Gongxiao and nearby villages believed to shelter many child beggars to surrender at police stations, warning they would face severe punishment if they refused.
China National Radio reported early this week that begging had been treated as a profitable business in Gongxiao and nearby villages for decades, and that farmers had begun to seek healthy young children in other areas as potential beggars from 1993.
Elderly villagers told the radio network that children either kidnapped or deceived away from their parents would be abused and disabled before being taken to big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to beg.
The children would be maltreated during a fortnight to a month's training at ringleaders' homes.
'Kids will be locked in cages like animals at night, in order to make them obey their ringleaders. They will be beaten cruelly if they resist,' the report said, citing villagers.
'To make these child beggars look more pitiful so they'll be able to beg for more money, kids will be forced to hang their legs around their necks. Many children couldn't do that, and ringleaders will pull and twist kids' legs to their necks, making them disabled.'