In a recent development, Hu Yixiao, a high school student from Anhui Province who had gone missing in Myanmar after being deceived, has finally escaped from the telecom fraud area and re-entered China through the Meng’akou Port in Pu’er, Yunnan on the morning of July 25th.
On the afternoon of July 14th, Hu Zongbing, a resident of Lujiang County, Hefei City, Anhui Province, sought help from the media, stating that his 18-year-old son, Hu Yixiao, went missing near Mengle Road and Mengla Road in Jinghong City after flying from Nanjing to Xishuangbanna on June 5th.
According to a report by CCTV News on July 25th, Hu Zongbing recalled that the last time he saw his son, Hu Yixiao, was on April 3rd this year. At that time, the child went from Lujiang County to work part-time in the provincial capital of Hefei on his own, and although he didn’t want his father to accompany him, he shared his location with his mother after arriving in Hefei. However, Hu Yixiao’s mother went to see him in Hefei on June 23rd, only to find that he was no longer there, prompting her to report to the police. It was later revealed that Hu Yixiao had traveled to Ma’anshan in Anhui, Nanjing in Jiangsu, Kunming in Yunnan, and finally arrived in Xishuangbanna. As a result, Hu Zongbing also reported to the police in Yunnan.
With no progress in the police investigation, on June 29th, Hu Zongbing went to Xishuangbanna to search for his son, with the only clue being the last intersection where his son was seen along with a traffic surveillance photo.
Hu Zongbing mentioned that he rented a house in the area and searched around but after not finding any trace for so long, he was nearly certain that his son was no longer in the country. He believed that if his son was still in China, it would be impossible to have left no trace after so many days of living essentials.
On July 14th, the Lujiang police in Anhui confirmed that Hu Yixiao was already overseas.
In an effort to gather more clues about his son, Hu Zongbing created several social media accounts and posted about his son’s disappearance online. Subsequently, he received messages from unidentified individuals claiming they could help find his missing child, but it would require an upfront payment of over 200,000 RMB with additional expenses totaling around 1 million RMB. Hu Zongbing stated that an ordinary family simply does not have such a large sum of money.
After the safe return of Peng Yuxuan, a missing high school student from Hanzhong, Shaanxi, on July 20th, on the afternoon of July 23rd, Hu Yixiao’s mother received a voice message from a fellow Anhui native overseas, confirming that Hu Yixiao had escaped from the telecom fraud area. Subsequently, Hu Yixiao used another person’s phone from overseas to send a message to the family, instructing them to register the next morning around 9 a.m. and wait for further instructions to return home.
Hu Zongbing mentioned that the specific details of his son’s escape are not yet clear, but upon seeing a recent photo of his son, he noticed some swelling on his face but confirmed that he was unharmed. He said, “I haven’t slept all night, waiting for the latest news.”
Reportedly, on the morning of July 25th, Hu Yixiao re-entered China through the Meng’akou Port in Pu’er, Yunnan. Currently, Hu Zongbing is still in Xishuangbanna awaiting the handover.
Nevertheless, similar cases continue to occur.
On June 23rd, 21-year-old Zhai Chao from Changchun, Jilin Province, and his classmate Qi Zhibo went missing after being introduced by a friend to work in Yunnan. Following a police investigation, the two were located inside Myanmar.
On June 25th, three high school students from Huanggang, Hubei Province were deceived under the pretext of delivering rhinoceros horns to Xishuangbanna and subsequently went missing, with their phone locations showing they were overseas.
On July 5th, Zhang Yuxi, a 21-year-old university student from Jining, Shandong, went to work for the summer in Beihai, Guangxi, but lost contact the next day. After receiving ransom demands through a phone call, the police confirmed he was taken to a scamming hub in Cambodia.
On July 13th, a 14-year-old boy from Guanshanhu District in Guiyang went missing after going to a classmate’s house. On the night of July 21st, the parents received a call from the child, confirming he was in the telecom fraud area.
Recently, two boys aged 14 and 16 from Puning, Guangdong, were lured to Myanmar under the guise of “high-paying jobs,” with ransom demands of 250,000 RMB. The 14-year-old boy has been rescued and returned to China, but there is still no information available for the 16-year-old boy called Xiaozheng.