Parents hug their child surnamed Wang, who has been abducted for 26 years, in Southwest China's Chongqing. Photo: VCG

Chinese police have found a total of 4,302 missing or abducted children since a special "reunion" campaign was launched this year, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) said on Sunday, two days before China's Mid-Autumn Festival, a festival highlighting family reunion.

Among the 4,302, 1,205 were abducted for more than 20 years, 888 for more than 30 years, 173 for 40 years, 95 for 50 years, and 22 for more than 60 years, according to a WeChat article posted by the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the MPS on its official account on Sunday to welcome the Mid-Autumn Festival which lies on Tuesday and is one of the happiest family reunion holidays for the Chinese people.

The Reunion campaign has solved 206 cases of children abduction, arrested 543 suspects. And more than 1,800 events have been organized for recognizing family members and relatives, said the article.

According to statistics, since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, public security organs at all levels across the country have solved 5,135 child trafficking cases, arrested some 23,000 suspects, and rescued a large number of abducted children, said Liu Zhongyi, the director of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, on Friday at a press conference.

The number of child abduction crimes has been decreasing year by year, dropping from 5,907 in 2009 to 666 in 2020, Liu said.

The MPS launched the Reunion campaign this year to help abducted children and parents who lost their children to reunite. DNA information was used to help police match lost children with their parents.