Big Brother saves Yu Weifeng: China’s one-child policy and the stolen boy reunited with his family
How easy is it to steal a human being in China? No, not for the overarching state to take children from loving families for re-education – which is a doddle for the country’s Government – but for non-wonks to take another human and make them vanish? Yu Weifeng, 21, has been reunited with his family. Yu vanished in 2001. “When we found him, he refused to believe that he was a kidnapped child,” says investigator Zheng Zhenhai, “but DNA confirmed that he was a match with his biological parents.”
The end to a mystery is the result of cutting-edge technology able to predict what Yu would look like as a grown man. “We opened the case the day after the incident and we never gave up,” adds Zheng. “Technology was limited at the time. We checked surveillance footage, but there were simply too many people coming in and out of the area… We’re very grateful to his foster parents for raising him for 18 years. From now on, his foster father will become like a brother to me; my son will have two dads.”
As with any technology ‘Made in China’, a degree of circumspection is needed. Is this – you know – true? The Chinese love to record and watch everyone and their genitals in their land. No arrests have been made. But the technology used to get every Chinese life on official cameras 24 hours a day has benefits, such as reuniting a long-lost son with his family.
PS: Yu was stolen in 2001 – when the Government policy in China limited many families to only one child, In 2013, the rules were changed to allow couples to have a second child if one parent is an only child but fewer couples than the government had expected began doing so. So let’s heat it for the son and heir back home. And you can – and very probably must – thank the Government which is only on the look out for new ways to control the people.
Posted: 21st, July 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Technology Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
