Recently on October 15, SCMP shared the heartbreaking story of a Chinese woman who was kidnapped as a child and her relentless journey to seek justice.
Yang Niuhua, born in 1990 in a village in Zhijin County, Guizhou Province (China), was kidnapped by Yu Huaying, a 61-year-old neighbor, in November 1995.
The five-year-old girl was taken to Handan, Hebei Province, about 2,000km away from her hometown, and sold to another family for 3,500 yuan.
According to the Guiyang Intermediate People's Court, Yu kidnapped a total of 17 children from 12 families across China in the 1990s. This is considered the most serious mass child kidnapping case in China in the past 10 years.
Yang Niuhua, who was renamed Li Suya, lived in a new home with her deaf-mute father, Li, and grandmother. She was regularly beaten and had to drop out of school at the age of 13 to work as an underage migrant worker in factories.
In 2009, she got married and had three children.
During those years, Yang Niuhua still vaguely remembered her hometown and her original name. She recalled: "I remember my original name was Niuhua because in my dreams, I heard my mother constantly calling me 'Niuhua, Niuhua'."
In April 2021, Yang Niuhua contacted her biological sister through the social media platform Douyin. When she reunited with her family in her hometown, she was devastated to learn that both her parents had died in their 30s, just a few years after she was kidnapped. They spent a year searching for her in vain, with tragic consequences: her father turned to alcohol and her mother suffered from mental health problems.
"I imagined several scenarios why my parents couldn't find me. For example, I guessed they were divorced, or they had a son later. However, I didn't expect that they would die of depression from losing me," Yang Niuhua shared in sorrow.
Determined to seek justice for herself and her family, Yang Niuhua spent months searching for evidence and convincing witnesses. Her efforts were instrumental in bringing Yu to court. In the first trial last September, Yu was sentenced to death.
When the verdict was delivered, Yang Niuhua felt relieved because “everyone knows Yu is a bad person.” Her story is not only a testament to human resilience in the face of adversity, but also a reminder of the long-term and tragic impact of human trafficking on victims and their families.
