Chinese parents, abducted son reunited after 24 years

After 24 years of heartache and searching, a Chinese couple was reunited with their son who was abducted as a toddler outside their front gate

BANGKOK -- After 24 years of heartache and searching, a Chinese couple was reunited with their son who was abducted as a toddler outside their front gate. Guo Gangtang and his wife, Zhang Wenge, hugged their 26-year-old son with tears in their eyes Sunday at a reunion organized by police in their hometown of Liaocheng in the eastern province of Shandong, according to a video recording released by police. The story of their reunion after Guo crisscrossed China by motorcycle searching for his son and became an activist who helped police return other missing children to their parents prompted an outpouring of public sympathy and condemnation of abductions. Guo Xinzhen, then age 2 1/2, was grabbed by a woman and her boyfriend who took him northwest to Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing, the Chinese capital, according to police. From there, he was sold to a couple in central China.