China's controversial one-child policy is being put forward as a possible reason for the snatching of a new-born baby boy from a street in Beijing where his mother had given birth. A police hunt is under way in the city for the infant, reported to have been stolen from the roadside near the city's third ring road on April 3rd.
The baby's mother, Ms Fang Xiangchun, gave birth on an unlit street near a construction site in the early hours of April 3rd after leaving home at 11 p.m. following a fight with her husband.
She went into labour unexpectedly and delivered the baby on her own. The distressed woman left her new-born son wrapped in her jacket and set out to seek help. One hundred metres down the road she turned back to see a man and woman take the baby away.
The boy's father, Mr Jin Chang Ming, told The Irish Times yesterday that his wife was too weak to shout and run after the couple. "She was helpless. She saw them pick up the baby and walk away. There was nothing she could do."
He said the fact the baby was a boy may have been the reason he was snatched by the couple. In China couples are allowed to have only one child and many families are keen for a boy to carry on the family name.
"I can't say for sure, but it may be when they saw it was a baby boy maybe the couple decided he was worth taking. Or maybe they had no child of their own. But he is ours and we want him back."
In recent years, concern has been expressed in China at the number of baby girls abandoned after birth because of their sex. Pictures of a dead new-born baby girl lying on a road in a small town in Hunan Province being ignored by passers-by sparked shock when they were printed in a British newspaper in February.
Last month the head of China's Statistical Bureau confirmed that in 1999 there were 117 male births for every 100 female births. He admitted this might be due in part to "sex selection", where couples have an ultrasound to see what sex their baby is. If it is a girl they sometimes opt for abortion. This practice is illegal in China but still goes on.
Mr Jin yesterday launched an appeal for the return of his son. In an interview in the Beijing Daily newspaper, he asked members of the public for any information about the baby for whom he has searched continuously for the past 18 days. The police are also involved in the search.
"In just 10 minutes my baby was gone," he said. He said his wife is very ill with stress and worry. "Every day she is getting worse. I cannot eat or sleep."
The couple are from Zhejiang province on the east coast and have no other children. They moved to Beijing to find work, and live in the Ma Jia Pu district of Beijing, one of the most populous cities in the world with 13 million people.