Shocking images of a child locked in a cage and hooked to the back of a tricycle have provoked fierce online debate in China.
Many internet users claim that the images show a clear case of child abuse, while others point out that the child seems to be well-cared for and happy, with a clean appearance and well-maintained clothes.
But the photographs may not be what they seem, reports the People's Daily Online after tracing the child to his home in Huangyan, east China.
Internet user 'Fu gao de gang' posted the photograph online, claiming to have snapped the shot of the 'metal prison' while in a public plaza in Taizhou.
He added that the man on the tricycle was between 60 and 70 years old, and claimed to be the boy's great uncle.
He added that the boy appears to be about 10 years old.
But other users countered the claims, insisting that they had also seen the caged child and that the man on the tricycle was closer to 30 years old.
Hoping to find the answer to the mystery, the People's Daily Online traced the 'cage bike' to a stainless steel factory in Nancheng Road in Huangyan, and discovered that the father has another explanation for the photographs.
The boy in the cage is in fact 10-year-old Xiao Hao, and he lives in the factory with his father Li Wenming.
The 36-year-old father, from Bozhou in Anhui, explained that his son was born with a slight defect on the crown of his skull.
When Xiao Hao was just 18 months old, his parents noticed that his limbs would often twitch involuntarily and took him to Taizhou's First People's Hospital.
'Doctors told me that Xiao Hao's brain had not developed fully, which led to him having intermittent seizures,' Li said.
After taking his son for a second diagnosis at a children's hospital in Beijing, doctors confirmed the diagnosis.
The family has now taken Xiao Hao to hospital in Beijing three times for treatment and further tests, and to purchase medicine.
But no treatment or medicines have yet had an affect on his condition.
Li said: 'Seeing doctors, buying medication and travel expenses have cost more than 200,000 yuan [about £20,600] over the years and my family's saving have been almost completely depleted.'
The family has no more money to pay for further medical treatment and so Li insists that he can only do what he can to look after Xiao Hao.
He claimed that the boy requires 24-hour care and that his wife has left him, leaving him to shoulder the responsibility of his son alone.
'He has a very curious nature, and likes to touch things that he has never seen before,' said Li.
'He particularly likes cars that drive by, or strangers who come close to him.
'It's because of this that I have made the cage, because I can't let him out of my sight but I can't bear to just lock him up at home.'
Li built the stainless steel cage - which is more than a metre high and has a padlocked door - so that he can take the boy to see new places, but without putting him in danger.
The online debate does not concern Li, as he is sure that he is doing the best he can for his son.
But he is concerned about the future.
'One day I will be old, and who is going to look after Xiao Hao then?' he asked.
'But even if there is the remotest hope I am not willing to give up on him.
'When he was young I took him to many doctors and now I often go online to look to new ways to help my son.
'But I have not yet found a better solution.'
Li has, however, managed to track down two hospitals in Beijing that claim that an operation could help his son, and Li is now busy earning money to pay for the vital operation.
Follow Me On Twitter & Instagram: @effiongeton
No comments:
Post a Comment