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Vietnamese boy rescued after trafficked to China by mother’s friend

By Minh Cuong January 7, 2017 | 07:38 pm PT

Chinese authorities return the boy to Vietnam on Friday. Photo courtesy of Quang Ninh Newspaper

Police are still tracking down the Taiwanese kidnapper.

A 3-year-old boy from Ho Chi Minh City has been rescued and sent home after being trafficked to China by a friend of his mother.

Chinese authorities returned the boy to Vietnamese border guards in Quang Ninh Province on Friday, a month after he was taken.

Investigators are still looking for the alleged Taiwanese kidnapper, Chuang Kuo Jen.

On December 2, the boy’s mother asked Chuang, a feng shui master, to check the location of her company in Ho Chi Minh City to help her improve her fortune. She brought the boy with her.

Before they said goodbye at his hotel that evening, Chuang asked the woman to leave the boy with him, saying he would love to take the boy around the city the next day.

Trusting their 10-year friendship, the woman agreed.

But when she came to pick up her son the next day, she found out Chuang had checked out and the boy was nowhere to be found.

Vietnamese police and their Chinese counterparts tracked down the boy and rescued him in Guangdong.

They believed that Chuang hired a woman who pretended to be the boy's mother and brought him to China across the border with fake documents.

Vietnam reported 1,128 trafficking victims in 2016, up nearly 13 percent from the previous year. According to the United Nations, nearly 1.2 million children worldwide are trafficked every year.

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