SCMP reported an incident that caused outrage on Chinese social media, when a man grabbed his three young children on the knee in the crowded streets to put pressure on his ex-wife, forcing her to return to him.
The incident occurred on the evening of August 15 in foshan City, Guangdong Province (China). Accordingly, a police officer while patrolling discovered three children kneeling on a large road, with many vehicles passing by, while the father sat leisurely in a flower bed nearby and watched.
According to Southern Metropolis Daily, all three children were under 7 years old, the youngest was only 2 years old.
The police quickly took the children to safety and warned their father. Fortunately, they were not injured.
The father in the above story was identified as Mr. Ling, 30 years old. This man said he could not contact his wife after an argument. According to this person, he took the children in the middle of the road in the hope that this would make his wife react and return.
It is known that his wife returned to her hometown after deciding to separate and refused to contact him.
The incident attracted great attention on Chinese social networks, with more than 63 million views on Weibo. Many social media users expressed their anger and criticized the father's behavior.
"It's ashaming and hateful for a father to not know how to love and care for his children," commented a Weibo user.
"Using children as hostages like this is an act of abuse of children and a violation of children's personal safety," another person said.
On August 16, the authorities of fos Son city announced that Mr. Ling and his three children had left the city and returned to the place of household registration, but did not disclose the specific location.
In China, minor violations of children's rights can be punished with up to five days of detention or a warning. This incident once again sounded the alarm about extreme child-rearing methods or making children a constraint in adults' love affairs.
