In China, Yong Tsui chained his son to a lamp post while trying to sell him to onlookers. Fai was only eight years old when his father was bidding him off to strangers, displaying a sign that contained his age, name and capacity for work.

But when potential buyers started asking how easy it was to feed the boy, onlookers couldn’t take it any more and decided to intervene in the auction. They attacked Tsui and contacted the police.

The father told police that the boy’s mother died three years ago and that he couldn’t afford to keep the boy anymore. An officer said, “He has no job, no home and no money. He says he wasn’t interested in the money, just finding a home for the boy.”

Tsui got the idea from a case earlier in the year involving two year old Cheng Jingdan being chained to a tree while his parents worked (father as a rickshaw driver and mother scavenging through trash). His parents couldn’t afford child care and thought chaining Jingdan would keep him safe from potential kidnappers after his older sister was snatched away while playing with her friends.

Fortunately, people were able to help the family out and now Jingdan is attending a nursery in Beijing.

It’s devastating to see parents go to extremes to help their children. I wonder what will happen to poor Fai. He’ll probably get the same treatment as Jingdan but what will become of his father?

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