From a Beijing newspaper comes a disturbing story about two teenagers who were lured to Burma with the prospect of jobs, then kidnapped and held for ransom. Danwei has a summary of the original Beijing News piece. It says the parents of the boys, Zhou Dawei and Zhang Bo, were called and told to pay 80,000 RMB ($12,000) or else their children would be executed:
On October 1, Dawei’s father Zhou Runsheng received a phone call from his son in Myitkyina, Burma, who told him that he had been arrested for drug dealing and would be executed if 80,000 yuan were not paid immediately. Zhou consulted his neighbors and relatives. All of them were doubtful that such things could really happen.
A few days later, another man also got a phone call from Burma. His son had been kidnapped, too. The kidnapper demanded a ransom of 80,000 yuan, threatening to skin his son if their conditions were not met.
The China Daily reported today that at least 50 teenagers from Shanxi province in central China have been kidnapped and are being held in Burma. They are now in an area occupied by rebels fighting the Burmese junta. Consequently both the Chinese and Burmese governments are limited in what they can do to release the captives.