Pregnant 12-year-old confirmed by Chinese authorities to have been abducted from Vietnam

Authorities in eastern China have confirmed that a pregnant 12-year-old girl had been abducted from Vietnam and sold as a bride to a 35-year-old man by a woman who said she had adopted the girl.

The People’s Procuratorate of Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, released a statement on its WeChat page on Monday that confirmed the status of the girl, whose case was widely reported by mainland media after the hospital she was taken to for an obstetric examination on Tuesday last week contacted local police after learning of her age. The statement added that the case would be handled by the procuratorial department for minors.

The girl, Lan Lan, said she was abducted by two Vietnamese and taken to Henan province in 2014, after which she ended up in Xuzhou and was “adopted” by a woman there, the report said.

The woman introduced the girl to a 35-year old man to be his “wife” and charged him 30,000 yuan (HK$34,755) as “betrothal gifts”, the statement said.

The two lived together and Lan Lan conceived. She is currently three months pregnant.