Child beggars on Beijing subway not kidnapped: official  

公安部回应北京地铁内婴儿被拐：DNA比对系亲生

公安部打拐办主任陈士渠认证微博5日晚发消息称，接到北京地铁有乞讨、疑似被拐儿童的微博、微信后，公安部打拐办即部署北京市公安局打拐办核查。经跟踪调查，民警在地铁二号线抓获5名甘肃岷县籍抱小孩乞讨人员。经DNA比对和与原籍地公安机关核查，均排除拐卖。[查看全文]

(ECNS) -- An official with the Ministry of Public Security responded on Monday to netizens' concerns about possible child trafficking and kids being forced to beg on the Beijing metro.

The response came after a photo of a woman holding a sleeping baby and begging on Beijing Metro Line 10 made the rounds on China's popular social networking sites.

The person who posted it suspected that the baby had been trafficked: "It appears that the woman has no blood relation with the fair-skinned baby."

The photographs sparked wide concern and the post was forwarded by many netizens on Sina Weibo and WeChat.

An update confirming the post aroused even more discussion and anger.

Other similar photos have been posted by netizens about possible trafficking and kids being forced to beg.

Chen Shiqu, director of the anti-human trafficking office under the Ministry of Public Security, responded by posting the results of a recent investigation on his Sina Weibo page.

He said they had found five women begging with children on Metro Line 2, but that the children's DNA all matched their parents.

The woman in the controversial post is among those five, the Beijing Times said.

The newspaper interviewed 10 netizens who had forwarded the post, most of whom said they wanted to help trafficked babies.

Many kidnapped children in China are forced to beg. Three years ago, an online campaign called on people to post pictures of young children begging in order to put a stop to it.