Chinese social media ablaze, divided over the death of four-year-old girl who went missing

The body of a 4-year old child who went missing nearly two weeks ago at a beach in Shanghai was found in Ningbo, Zhejiang province on Wednesday, 18 October.

An unfortunate incident

Ningbo police informed Shanghai police about the corpse of a child that was found in Ningbo on Wednesday morning.

Upon further forensic investigation, it was established that the corpse of the toddler found in Ningbo was that of the 4-year old girl who went missing two weeks ago.

The body was further identified by the parents of the girl, surnamed Huang. The police stated that the cause of death was consistent with drowning and that there were no signs that indicated of any other crime that might have taken place. The incident took place on the evening of 4th October.

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In a statement given by Huang’s father to the police, he said that he had brought his daughter to beach to play. She was around 20 metres away from the shoreline and was busy playing while he left her for around 10 minutes and went to fetch his mobile phone from the car. Later when he returned to the beach, he was unable to find his daughter.

The tragic news has sparked questions about child safety and parental responsibility in China.

Social media ablaze over the killing of the girl

The matter has sparked heated debate on Chinese social media site, Weibo.

The news sparked outrage amongst Chinese netizens who expressed their disbelief and sadness over the event.

Some Weibo posts read “Why is there such an irresponsible father! Why doesn't he take the phone and bring the child when returning to shore!”; “Who exactly is speaking up on behalf of those goddamn parents?”; “Still, we hope the police will investigate carefully.”

Who is to be blamed?

Chinese netizens seems to be divided over their views on the incident.

While some users are of the opinion that there needs to be a change in China's laws over kidnapping, some users directly blamed the parents for their negligence which resulted in the death of the girl.

China’s present laws over kidnapping offers a maximum sentence of five year and netizens were quick to point out this shortcoming of the Chinese laws.

While Weibo seemed to be divided in its opinion on who to blame, Global Times, a popular Chinese media outlet and the Communist Party’s mouthpiece blamed the parents for their negligence for the death of Huang.

Global Times also pointed out the reform in children's welfare took effect on 1st June, 2021 and seeks to provide Chinese minors with better protection both at school and home, online and offline.

Sanlian Lifeweek Magazine, an influential weekly ran a poll on Thursday, 19th Oct on Weibo - "Do you support raising the penalty for guardians' child neglect." More than 180,000 netizens participated in the poll as of Thursday night. Some also pointed out that increasing the penalty for guardians' child neglect was the only way forward of ensuring the safety of children.

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