China man kidnaps grandchild to pay off $97,000 gambling debt – and then blamed it on daughter

Blood should be thicker than water, but some might disregard the value of familial relationships just to fuel their own interests.

This was the case for one Chinese grandfather addicted to gambling, who had kidnapped his own granddaughter in order to pay off his 500,000 yuan (S$96,600) debt.

The criminal case – which was reported in the Shanghai Law Journal – began when the 65-year-old man, surnamed Yuan, had picked up his four-year-old granddaughter from school, reported the South China Morning Post today (April 25).

Yuan then proceeded to threaten his own daughter, claiming that "you won't see your daughter again" unless a ransom of 500,000 yuan was paid to him in three days, on top of a death threat.

The daughter subsequently filed a police report and Yuan was arrested. He was then imprisoned for extortion. 

However, when incarcerated, Yuan attempted to absolve himself of the crime by pushing the blame to his daughter, accusing her of being "ungrateful".

"I'm 65 years old and my daughter is suing me. She never wants me to get better. She wants me dead," he said.

Yuan also thought that this incident was a "family" matter, instead of a "legal" one.

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The report also stated that the man had staged a hunger strike while behind bars, and was unable to get along with his cellmates.

The row ended when the police and Yuan's ex-wife stepped in, and Yuan's daughter wrote a letter of understanding for him.

He started to adapt to prison life and cooperate with authorities afterwards.

It is not known when or where the kidnapping incident occurred.

The story caught the eyes of several prominent Chinese news outlets, and a video re-telling the saga has been viewed more than three million times on Weibo.

Chinese netizens expressed anger at the grandfather for his actions, with one commenter saying that the man was "useless" and that "he won't change until he dies", before calling for the daughter to cut off her relationship with him.

Another opined that "extortion and violence are crimes and definitely not 'family matters'", in response to Yuan's statements.

According to South China Morning Post, child abduction in China was rampant between the 1980s and 2010s, right after then-president Deng Xiaoping imposed the one-child policy in 1980.

Although cases of child trafficking in the country has been dwindling, it still remains a persistent issue, with policymakers making it a top priority to tackle it in years to come.

ALSO READ: Chinese man abducted as child leaves billionaire adoptive family, discovers birth parents are multi-millionaires

wongdaoen@asiaone.com