The Tai'an Intermediate People's Court in East China's Shandong Province on Wednesday opened a trial of a child abduction case which dates back to 2006, when 8-month-old Jiang Jiaru was abducted from his grandparents' home. The court concluded the trial without an immediate verdict on Wednesday.

The trial concluded at around 6:30 pm on Wednesday following about nine hours of proceedings at the court.

The now-adult abduction survivor, Jiang Jiaru, attended the trial. "I will confront them in court - how many other victims did they take?" Jiang said outside the courtroom before the proceedings, The Paper reported.

Yang Niuhua, a trafficking survivor who previously confronted notorious child trafficker Yu Huaying in court, was also on-site to support Jiang and his family. 

On December 4, 2006, Jiang was abducted from his grandparents' home in Shandong by three intruders who broke in during the early hours. In January 2024, four suspects, including two suspects surnamed Zeng and Lü, were apprehended by police, China Central Television reported.

Prosecutors said the defendants had kidnapped the child through violent means with intent to sell, constituting clear violations of criminal law with substantiated evidence, and should therefore be prosecuted for human trafficking crimes, according to the CCTV report.

According to China National Radio, as of January 2024, the police found Jiang in Ji'ning, Shandong. They also arrested four suspects involved in the kidnapping of the child, one of whom turned out to be their neighbor, an individual surnamed Yuan, who lived only a few hundred meters away. 

Qiao Shoufen, Jiang's mother, said that they asked for severe punishment for the human traffickers, according to the report.

Jiang's Grandmother recalled that at around 1 am on December 4, 2006, the grandparents were holding their two grandsons indoors when several masked intruders burst in, the Beijing News reported. One pinned her husband to the floor, another restrained the grandmother, while a third one carried away the 8-month-old infant. The intruders fled after locking the door, and the grandmother climbed onto the rooftop screaming for help, according to the report. 

Jiang's grandmother said that after the incident, her husband became very depressed, smoking five or six packs of cigarettes a day. Later, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and passed away, the Beijing News reported.

The case caught the public's attention as well. Some netizens expressed sympathy for families who have lost their children and called for harsh punishment of the human traffickers on China's X-like social media Sina Weibo.

In recent years, China has intensified its efforts to combat human trafficking. China's public security authorities solved more than 550 cases of women and child trafficking in 2024, with a group of trafficking suspects apprehended and a batch of missing and abducted women and children rescued, including a victim abducted three decades ago, according to China's Ministry of Public Security.

Whoever traffics women or children shall be sentenced to imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than 10 years and shall also be fined. Under certain circumstances, the offender shall be sentenced to imprisonment of not less than 10 years or life imprisonment, depending on the crimes, under China's Criminal Law.