中国微博上的打拐潮Campaign to trace China’s abducted children

China has become gripped by an internet campaign to trace children abducted and forced to become beggars, and reunite them back with their families – a movement that seems to have received a rare stamp of approval from the government.

一场互联网打拐活动正牵动着整个中国的神经——人们通过网络，追踪被迫成为乞丐的被拐卖儿童，帮助他们回家。这一活动似乎罕见地获得了中国政府的认可。

Two weeks ago, Yu Jianrong, a prominent government critic, began a micro-blog to help rescue such children by urging people to post photographs of young beggars. The blog has since gathered 1,000 pictures, 100,000 followers and made several families happy.

两周前，著名政府批评人士于建嵘开通了一个微博，通过鼓励民众为年轻乞丐拍照的做法，帮助解救被拐儿童。迄今为止，该博客共收集到1000张照片，粉丝数量已达10万，并帮助数个家庭重新团圆。

On Tuesday, Peng Gaofeng, a migrant worker in Shenzhen, was reunited with his son who was kidnapped three years ago. Five other children whose pictures were posted on the blog were also identified by their parents, Chinese state media said on Wednesday.

周二，移居深圳的彭高峰找回了自己3年前被劫持的儿子。据中国官方媒体周三报道，还有5名照片被贴到博客上的儿童，已被亲生父母认出。

Hosted by popular social networking site Sina Microblog, Mr Yu’s blog has led to other similar ones appearing on the Chinese internet.

于建嵘的微博开设在颇具人气的社交网站新浪微博上，也带动了中国互联网上其它类似博客的涌现。

Many initiatives that spread through microblogs in China quickly turn into confrontations with the government, as they tend to centre on abuses by local officials. Beijing often then orders the hosting site to block further comment.

其它许多通过微博在中国传播的活动，往往都因为着眼于抨击地方官员的不正之风，而迅速转变为与政府的对抗。因此中国政府常常命令微博网站封锁进一步的评论。

However, in this case, the Chinese authorities appear to have jumped on the bandwagon, with state media reporting Mr Peng’s reunion with his son. Police in some cities have also joined the online campaign.

但在打拐活动上，中国当局似乎采取了支持态度。官方媒体报道了彭高峰找到儿子的新闻，一些城市的公安部门也参与到网上行动中来。

“Please take pictures of begging or stray children you encounter to provide leads for families,” said one official police microblog in Changzhou, in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

江苏省常州公安官方微博“平安常州”说，“请您随手拍下你遭遇到的乞讨、流浪的儿童，连同时间、地点信息上传到微博，为寻人家庭提供线索。”

China estimates 20,000 children are abducted every year. Some are forced to beg by crime syndicates, while others are sold to couples who cannot have children, or are made to work in factories.

中国估计每年有2万儿童被拐卖。一些儿童在犯罪团伙的逼迫下去乞讨，还有一些被卖给不能生育的家庭，或在工厂做工。

In India, child beggars and labour are still common, though many are thought to be put in work by their own impoverished parents. However, thousands of Indian children are also reported missing every year and newspapers often publish police reports of children who have disappeared. India’s?National?Centre for Missing Children, a non-profit group established in 2000, has 320,000 subscribers to its regular “kids missing alerts” which disseminate photos and data of missing children.

在印度，儿童乞丐和童工仍很常见，不过，据悉许多儿童是在自己穷困父母的指使下这样做的。但据报道，印度每年也会有数千名儿童失踪，报纸常常公布警方关于已失踪儿童的报告。印度2000年成立的非营利组织National? Centre for Missing Children会定期发布“儿童失踪警戒”，散播失踪儿童的照片和数据。目前，该活动已拥有32万捐款人。

Mr Yu, who is also a researcher at the respected Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has tapped into an existing online push by parents of abducted children in China. Organisations such as “Baby Come Home” or “The Ark” run websites with information on missing children.

于建嵘同时还是受人尊敬的中国社科院的一位研究员，他的行动也是借助了现有的一项由中国被拐卖儿童父母展开的在线打拐活动。“宝贝回家寻子网”或“方舟寻子网”等组织都建立了网站，以发布失踪儿童的信息。

However, his campaign, which marks the first time microblogs have joined the cause, has taken the movement to a new level. The social networking tool has spread rapidly in China during the past two years, cranking up the speed at which information travels and helping support the country’s fledgling civil society. “Everyone has a microphone,” Mr Yu told local media in December.

但于建嵘的活动将这一运动提升到了一个新高度，标志着微博首次参与到这项事业中来。过去两年，微博这种社交工具在中国快速传播，加快了信息流动的速度，并推动了中国尚不成熟的公民社会的发展。“每个人都有话筒，”于建嵘去年12月对一家地方媒体这样表示。

David Bandurski, a Chinese media expert at the University of Hong Kong, said the movement demonstrated both the power of social media in addressing social issues and how such tools challenged controls on public opinion.

香港大学中国媒体专家班志远(David Bandurski)表示，打拐行动展示了社交媒体在应对社会问题时的能量，以及这些工具是如何挑战了（政府）对民意的管控。

The initiative has already generated criticism of the government. Wu Di, a blogger, asked where the government and police had been, in addressing the problem of abducted children: “Are the things the people can see invisible to our leaders?”

这一活动已引发了一些对中国政府的批评。一名叫吴迪（音译）的博主在谈及拐卖儿童问题时，质问政府和警方都到哪儿去了：“老百姓都能看见的问题，我们的领导人就看不见吗？”