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Tragic case focuses spotlight on left-behind children
China Daily
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Tragic case focuses spotlight on left-behind children

When Liang Denghua, 43, and his female companion, Xie Yanfang, 45, decided to end their lives in the depths of Dongqian Lake in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, on July 8, they had just 31.70 yuan ($4.60) in their possession.

That is barely enough to buy a bowl of beef noodles or a Mc-Donald's meal for two in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai or Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang.

The reason the pair, who both came from Huazhou, a small city in Guangdong province, decided to commit suicide in such dramatic fashion may never be fully known.

But over the past week, millions of people in China have been gripped by the fate of Zhang Zixin, a 9-year-old girl from Zhejiang's Chun'an county, who was taken away by the couple and later found drowned at sea.

Zhang, who had a long ponytail and wore glasses, lived with her grandparents, who own a small orchard in Qingxi village in Chun'an.

However, after Liang and Xie rented a room for 500 yuan a month from Zhang's grandparents, life changed.

Initially, Liang and Xie were model tenants when they began renting the room on June 29, inviting Zhang's grandparents to have dinner with them, and buying snacks and toys for the girl.

"I've just acquired a goddaughter," Liang posted on WeChat on July 6.

The pair took Zhang with them on the morning of July 4, saying they were attending a wedding ceremony in Shanghai and wanted to invite her to tour the city with them.

They said they needed a flower girl for the wedding.

Zhang Jun, the girl's father, who works in Tianjin, strongly opposed the idea when the grandparents asked for his view. However, after lengthy attempts by the suspects to persuade the elderly couple, the grandmother finally gave her approval.

The pair promised to return with the girl the next day, but on July 5 and 6 they told the grandparents they could not obtain train tickets.

On July 7, the grandfather said they would contact police if they did not return. The mobile phone used by Liang and Xie was powered off, and the grandparents lost contact with them on that day.

The girl's father contacted Liang on July 4 after learning that the grandmother had given permission for the girl to go to Shanghai.

The father became suspicious when he found Liang had deleted his post on WeChat. When he messaged Liang to ask where they were, Liang initially said Xiamen in Fujian province. He then said they were in Ningbo, and then Wenzhou, both cities in Zhejiang.

Surveillance video shows Zhang Zixin appearing in a hotel doorway at a scenic spot in Xiangshan county, Ningbo, 300 kilometers southeast of Chun'an county, at 5:25 p.m. on July 7.

Early next day, Liang and Xie's bodies were found in Dongqian Lake, Ningbo. According to the Hangzhou newspaper Metropolitan Express, surveillance cameras showed the pair, tied together by clothing, walking peacefully toward a deep area of the lake.

Police later said the pair had been longtime "swindlers and transients" who had run out of money and decided they wanted to end their lives.

"A preliminary investigation found that they had, for some time, considered the idea of committing suicide, and had the motive and intention of seeking death along with that of the girl," a police spokesman said.

Liang and Xie had lived together since 2005 and had been cheating and borrowing money from friends and relatives for the past two years to pay for travel, police said.

Authorities in Zhejiang mobilized a team of more than 500 rescue workers using speedboats with sonar equipment in attempts to locate Zhang Zixin in caves on the coast, where she had last been seen.

Her body was found on Saturday in the sea off Xiangshan county, 30 km from where she had last been seen alive. An autopsy found she had drowned. There were no obvious injuries on her body, and police said they ruled out accidental drowning.

Lonely vacations

Now that the basic facts surrounding the case have become clear, calls have been made for more efforts and extra care to be taken to solve social problems involving so-called empty villages and left-behind children - those left in rural areas with their grandparents as their parents seek work in cities.

Zhang Zixin's father works in Tianjin throughout the year, while her mother, who left her when she was 2 to work in a factory in Dongguan, Guangdong, said she had not seen her daughter for four years as she and Zhang Jun were seeking a divorce.

Amid China's economic boom over the past 30 years, many young people in rural areas have left poor villages to live and work in towns or cities, leaving their children in the care of grandparents.

Xinhua News Agency reported last week that as of the end of August, some 6.97 million children had been left in rural homes by parents who moved to cities to support their families.

While their urban peers are busy attending summer camps or training classes during the summer vacation, millions of children in rural areas face lonely and sometimes dangerous holidays if left unattended and without sufficient support, both emotional and physical.

One rural primary school teacher, who requested anonymity, said, "For rural kids, their summer vacation equates to a summer hibernation". Perhaps that's why the surveillance camera footage of Zhang Zixin in Xiangshan showed her smiling and happy.

On Monday, a China Youth Daily article called for the launch of a summer vacation reporting system for rural children, so they can be better protected and placed under the supervision of village authorities and the police to safeguard them from accidents and attack.

Speaking in March during this year's two sessions, Yu Liufen, a grassroots member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee from Guizhou province, said that the lack of young people in villages has become one of the major factors hampering economic and social development in rural areas.

A report last year by the Development and Research Center, which is responsible to the State Council, said the problem of emptiness and destitution in central and western rural areas is widespread and has become the focus of social governance.

A netizen with the user name haoqixin2015 wrote on Sina Weibo, "In Zhang Zixin's case, both the grandparents and the girl belonged to disadvantaged groups who are vulnerable to tricksters and are at risk."

In Hangzhou, the women's federation and the city's Communist Youth League jointly issued an emergency notice on Monday calling for enhanced "security training" for the left-behind population in rural areas in an attempt to close any loopholes in rural governance.

Main information source

Meanwhile, establishing a well-informed countryside has emerged as a key task for suburban areas.

Earlier this year, an investigation by the Shanghai news, travel and entertainment portal eastday.com found that of 300 villagers interviewed in Zhangma village, only 60 km from the city's downtown, just 21 had downloaded apps to check the latest news.

The investigation also found that in suburban Shanghai, television is still the main information source for villagers, who also prefer to use cheap smartphones. Few of them intend to download news apps.

The survey concluded that elderly people in rural areas lack the desire to acquire information through smartphones, and have no ability to obtain information and news on their own initiative.

China DailyShen Yi

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