Chinese boy abducted at 3, who inspired child trafficking film, enters direct PhD programme

A young Chinese man who has just graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Technology from the prestigious Wuhan University is set to embark on a new life as a doctoral student at the same institution.

Peng Wenle is not just another ordinary 21-year-old; he was abducted at the age of three in 2008 from outside his parents’ telephone service shop in southern China’s Shenzhen and was recovered three years later, thanks to his parents’ tireless search.

Wenle seized this academic milestone as an opportunity to express his gratitude to his parents, stating that he might have lived a life of “farming and herding livestock in a village” had it not been for their relentless efforts.

Wenle was taken by a man and brought to a village in eastern China’s Jiangsu province.

On that fateful day, Wenle was playing with other children near the shop. His father, Peng Gaofeng, recalled that Wenle had been out of their sight for just three minutes when the abductor forcibly seized him, carried the struggling boy onto a bus, and vanished.

Peng Gaofeng, his wife Xiong Yini, and Wenle had relocated to Shenzhen from their hometown in Qianjiang, central China’s Hubei province, in 2007, driven by the simple wish to improve their lives.

The couple were devastated by their son’s disappearance. A visibly weakened Xiong lost 10kg, while Peng desperately searched for Wenle in provinces where he thought the boy may have been taken.