Chinese prison reunites inmate with family 30 years after kidnapping by child traffickers
Authorities help convicted killer track down his biological sister and mother
A prison in southeast China has arranged for a long-term inmate to reunited with his biological family 30 years after he was snatched by child traffickers, according to Chinese media.
Longyan prison in Fujian province was organising for Zheng Jiang, 34, to be reunited with his biological mother and sister on Thursday, news website Thecover.cn reported.
Zheng wrote to prison authorities late last month asking for help after he had a dream that his biological parents were calling on him home.
He had been taken from his family in the southwestern province of Guizhou when he was five years old and raised by another family.
The authorities published Zheng’s letter and the story attracted attention from other media outlets in Fujian, where a woman identified only as Zhang, was working.
Zhang said several details of Zheng’s story matched her own so she got in contact with the prison.
Zhang and Zheng then had DNA tests and the results confirmed they were siblings.
Zheng has been in prison for about a decade after being sentenced to death for murder. He was given a two-year suspended death sentence, which appears to have been commuted to life in jail in line with Chinese law.
He had not received any letters or visits from friends or his adoptive family since his conviction, prison warder Chen Jiangbin told The Beijing News.
Zheng was seized by child traffickers when he was out shopping with his father, Thecover.cn quoted Zhang as saying. Their father died of throat cancer a few years later and told the family to continue looking for the missing child, Zhang said.
“I can’t believe my little brother has been found after 30 years of searching,” China News Service quoted Zhang as saying.