China launches campaign to rescue abducted children

China has launched a campaign to locate missing or abducted children and help them reunite with their families, the Ministry of Public Security said Friday.

The campaign that started in January this year will use a database of DNA information to find children who have been abducted or missing over the past four decades, Tong Bishan, deputy director of the Criminal Investigation Department, told a press conference.

Parents of abducted children and the victims are encouraged to have their DNA information collected at nearby public security agencies so that their personal information can be recorded in the national DNA database to help find the biological relatives, Tong said. 

The ministry also called on the public to report information involving child abductions to the police and offer assistance in the search for missing children.

The national DNA database of the missing children was built in 2009 and in 2016, an alert platform was set up, on which information of missing children are pushed to public through 25 mobile applications.