The real name of “Aunt Mei” has been exposed for the first time as the case of Aunt Mei enters the prosecutorial review phase, creating a buzz on Weibo and drawing widespread attention.
According to Dahe Daily, on the evening of August 5th, abducted child Zhong Bin revealed that he has learned the real name of the human trafficker known as “Aunt Mei” to be “Xie Jiamei”.
Zhong Bin stated that he received a “Notice of the Rights and Obligations of the Victim” from the Zengcheng District Procuratorate of Guangzhou on August 4th, which explicitly stated that “the suspect Xie Jiamei is suspected of child trafficking”. This official document marks the first disclosure of “Aunt Mei’s” real name, signaling that this highly publicized child trafficking case has officially entered the prosecutorial review phase.
Speaking of his abduction, Zhong Bin mentioned that at the time of the incident, his father was at work, and his mother had just finished lunch and was washing dishes. As a toddler who had just started walking, he was playing alone in the yard when a neighbor, Zhang Weiping, took him away and subsequently sold him to “Aunt Mei”, leading to a separation from his biological family for over twenty years.
After being abducted, Zhong Bin lived in Heyuan, Guangdong. His father, Zhong Dingyou, quit his job to search for his son, traveling far and wide for over twenty years. It wasn’t until 2025 that Zhong Bin was finally reunited with his biological parents.
Upon seeing videos of his father searching for him over the years, Zhong Bin truly understood the pain his family had endured, feeling particularly uncomfortable. He ultimately decided to return to his original family, while his adoptive parents deleted his contact information.
On March 21st this year, the Guangzhou police reported the latest progress in the “Zhang Weiping and others child trafficking case”, with the arrest of the suspect Xie (female). The police confirmed that Xie is the crucial figure “Aunt Mei” in this case, who has confessed to the crime of child trafficking.
According to previous police reports and Chinese media coverage, from September 2003 to December 2005, a criminal gang led by Zhang Weiping operated in Zengcheng, Guangzhou, Boluo, Huizhou, and other areas, using various methods such as deception and kidnapping toddlers to abduct nine male children aged 1 to 3. Aunt Mei was responsible for contacting buyers and reselling the children, playing a key role in the entire criminal chain.
Multiple victim families embarked on the arduous journey of searching for their missing children. For instance, the father of the abducted boy Shen Cong, Shen Junliang, resigned from his job as a factory manager, sold properties, borrowed money, and traveled nationwide for over twenty years to find his son. Another father of an abducted child, Xiao Yang, tragically took his own life unable to bear the pain of losing his son.
Under public pressure, the Guangdong authorities established a joint task force at provincial, municipal, and district levels to investigate the case. In 2016, Zhang Weiping and five main suspects were arrested, leading to the identification of “Aunt Mei” as the one responsible for trafficking the children. However, due to the authorities’ long-standing inability to ascertain her true identity, name, and obtain clear photos, Aunt Mei has been on the run for years, becoming one of China’s most-wanted human traffickers.
An earlier report by Cover News mentioned a man claiming to have been involved with “Aunt Mei” recalled that she identified herself as “Pan Dongmei” but did not reveal whether it was her real name. She claimed to live in Guangzhou, have two daughters, and be in her fifties. She would stay for two days and leave, never allowing anyone to see her ID or leave a photo behind.
Aunt Mei was finally captured earlier this year in March, with the police confirming her true identity for the first time. Now, as the case proceeds to the prosecutorial phase, her real name “Xie Jiamei” has been publicly disclosed through legal documents.
The exposure of Aunt Mei’s real name has sparked heated discussions and debates among the public.
“Why has there been so much secrecy surrounding her, with the authorities either keeping her name or appearance confidential? When will her true face be revealed?”
Some netizens sarcastically remarked, “It feels like Aunt Mei’s privacy has been better protected than anyone else’s on the entire internet.”
By 2024, all nine abducted boys in the case had been recovered, but most families continue to face challenges such as rebuilding relationships, coping with psychological trauma, and the long-term effects of separation.
In recent years, the issue of child abduction and trafficking in China has consistently raised social concerns. The “China White Paper on Missing Persons (2020)” revealed that in 2020 alone, the nationwide number of missing people reached one million.