A cancer-suffering mother in China has died without finding her missing son after a near decade-long search following his abduction at the age of five. - Photo: SCMP composite/chinapress.com/mp.oeeee.com
BEIJING: A 41-year-old Chinese woman who died without finding her abducted son has generated an outpouring of sympathy on mainland social media.
Li Xuemei, from southern China’s Guangdong province, died of lung cancer on Aug 19 without fulfilling her last wish to see her boy again.
A month before she died, Li posted a video on the Douyin account she had set up to search for him called “Looking for Liu Jiazhu”.
She announced then that the cancer had advanced, and spread to her bones.
“Jiazhu, mum won’t see you again. I’m sorry,” she wrote.
The boy was abducted at the age of five with his friend while playing in a field near his countryside home, one day before the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2015.
Li was working in another Guangdong city to financially support her family and pay for treatment for her younger daughter who was diagnosed with autism in 2016.
She called her husband to check if the boy had eaten mooncake, a traditional snack to celebrate the festival of reunion, and learned the heartbreaking news that their son was missing.
From that day, Li and her husband Liu Dongping did not stop looking for him.
Liu said they had handed out hundreds of thousands of missing person posters in a search that stretched as far as northeastern China.
They also registered their DNA data with the police in a bid to increase the chances of finding their son.
China’s police set up an anti-abduction DNA system in 2009.
In 2021, they launched a Reunion Campaign, putting more resources into looking for lost children.
The database is also a place where people who have doubts about their identity can submit their DNA information and a nationwide search can be undertaken for a potential match.
The system has helped many long-lost Chinese children to find their biological parents.
People like Sun Zhuo, who was abducted in 2007 and reunited with his parents Sun Haiyang and Peng Siying in 2021, and Guo Zhen, who was abducted in 1997 and reunited with his father Guo Gangtang in 2021.
Liu said their hopes were raised every time other parents were reunited with their children.
Then it became a race against time for Li after she was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2022.
Li divorced Liu after the diagnosis fearing she would be an additional burden for him as he was already caring for his paralysed father and his mother who had hearing problems.
However, Liu continued to care for Li and to finance their daughter’s special school that cost 2,500 yuan (US$350) a month, which he paid for out of his 4,000 yuan a month wages from his supermarket job.
After Li died, Liu said he would carry on searching for their son to fulfil her last wish. - South China Morning Post
