MAN SEARCHES FOR SON AS ON-LINE CHILD SALES DEVELOPS IN CHINA

An illegal market in children has developed in China, in which babies are being openly sold online. Police say many of the victims are from the estimated 20,000 children abducted each year - a crime with a devastating impact on separated children and parents.

It was a few days before the Chinese New Year in February 2007 and Xiao Chaohua was working at his small clothes shop in an industrial zone of Huizhou, a city in China's Pearl River delta, not far from Hong Kong.

Xiao's five-year-old son, Xiaosong, was in a playful mood. A couple of hours earlier, they had visited a nearby beach where they had made sandcastles and paddled in the surf. "He was so happy that day," says his father. "I took lots of pictures of him on my phone."

On the motorbike ride back home, Xiaosong fell asleep and lost one of his shoes. When his mother found out she scolded them for being careless. But the shop was full of workers from nearby factories buying new clothes for the holiday and there was no time to argue.

At about seven in the evening, as dusk was falling, Xiaosong asked his father for some money to buy his favourite snack - the sweet milk from a grocery shop just around the corner. His 10-year-old sister, Xiao Lu, would accompany him. Xiao thought nothing of it and gave Xiaosong some small change.

It was the last time he saw his son.

Xiao realised something was wrong when his daughter returned alone. The two children had split up after Lu had gone to speak to a friend.

He immediately began searching. At first he checked the grocery store, then the internet cafe, but found nothing. He called the police and an officer arrived.

Xiao says the policeman said there was no point in looking as his son had probably been snatched and already taken to another city. But Xiao was undeterred. A few hours later, he found a migrant worker who he had previously seen playing with Xiaosong at a games arcade. The man was taken to the police station for questioning but was released as there was no evidence against him. He then vanished.

During the first week, Xiao paid for a missing person advertisement on local TV. It cost him 50,000 rmb (£5,200, $8,000). There was no response. So he kept on searching. Days became weeks, weeks became months, and months turned into years. "I had no plans," he says. "I just went crazy. I just went wherever I could find people, wherever I could find crowds."