Man, 21, abducted by child traffickers 19 years ago is reunited with his family

after routine DNA test reveals his true past

• Xiao Ji was kidnapped on streets of Guangzhou, China as a toddler
• But his parents kept looking for him and police matched their DNA to his
• Now he says he wants to stay in touch with both his families

A Chinese man who was abducted as a toddler has been reunited with his parents nearly two decades later thanks to a routine DNA test.

Xiao Ji, now a 21-year-old student, was snatched in the street in Guangzhou, in the south of the country, as his parents took him shopping when he was just two years old.

Traffickers sold him to an unsuspecting family in neighbouring Fujian province, where he grew up with no knowledge of his birth parents.

However, his parents Huang Shouping and Lin Sun never gave up looking for him.

‘We always knew that one day we would find him so we did everything we could to make that happen,’ Mr Huang said after the reunion.

The couple found their son when they gave a blood sample to police, who compared their DNA with Mr Xiao’s and made a match.

‘The idea is that all adopted children who come to the notice of the authorities – through national army service or government work – are tested against the DNA records of parents whose children have been taken,’ a police spokesman said.

Family: Mr Xiao, pictured with his baby snaps, was brought up by adoptive parents who did not know he had been kidnapp

Adoptive father Zhang Huan told police he had no idea that Xiao had been stolen when he bought him.

‘My wife and I couldn’t have children of our own,’ he said. ‘The man who sold him to me told me he was his own son and he could not afford to keep him.’

The student is overjoyed by his discovery, and plans to remain in close contact with both his birth and adoptive families.

‘I have four parents instead of two,’ he said. ‘My adoptive parents were a great mum and dad who gave me a lot of love and care.

‘But I have a new family now who I have to get to know all over again.’