Childcare, Chinese style: Rickshaw driver chains two-year-old son to a post while he's at work

By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 8:05 AM on 04th February 2010

At first sight it seems the ultimate in child cruelty - a two-year-old boy chained to a lamp post to stop him getting away.

Yet his parents say this is the only way they can guarantee not to lose him.

His father Chen Chuanliu works as an unlicensed rickshaw cyclist in Beijing, taking fares all over the city, while the boy's disabled mother collects rubbish at the roadside.

Chained: Two-year-old Chen Chuanliu is regularly padlocked to a tree while his rickshaw driver father touts for customers in Beijing

Chained: Two-year-old Chen Chuanliu is regularly padlocked to a tree while his rickshaw driver father touts for customers in Beijing

No escape: The padlock securing the toddler

No escape: The padlock securing the toddler

They say they secured their son, Lao Lu, with a padlock around his ankle because his four-year-old sister Ling was 'stolen' from them last month.

Child snatching is rife in China, where strict laws govern the size of families.

Concerned passers-by spotted the shackled toddler outside Huaguan Shopping Mall in Liangxiang.

They reported his father to the authorities, who yesterday ordered him to remove the chain although it was not clear what arrangements he would make in future.

There is no nursery place for Lao Lu because his 42-year-old father is a migrant worker from another province, Szechuan, and therefore does not qualify for state help. The family live in one room, 9ft by 8ft.

Chen said he could not afford to pay for childcare on his earnings of £4.50 a day and had refused offers of 'a lot of money' to give his son up for adoption.

'My wife cannot take care of him and I have to work to support my family. So I chain him to a pole when I have a fare.

'I don't even have a picture of my daughter to use for a missing-person poster. I cannot lose my son as well.'

Father's pride: Rickshaw driver Chen Chuanliu with Lao Lu

Chen Chuanliu insists chaining up son Lao Lu is for his own good

 
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Isn't China still technically a Communist Government..?? ....don't they have a State sponsored nursery and school system.?? Isn't that the point of Communism..?

Poor little kid - I hope he makes it big one day.

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I think I would have to walk in his shoes and be in his situation before I can pass judgement from my comfy western life
- Paula, Oxford, 3/2/2010 18:05

After many years, finally a sensible comment here on the DM forums.
- Brit Expat, France, 4/2/2010 8:17


Well said.

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The posting from the person in Arizona is proof there are self-loathing americans that are clueless on economics.

Here are some facts.
China has an economic growth rate of somewhere around 10%+. We have a growth rate of 2%+ and our economy is in the tank. The US creating the debt hasnt hurt china, it has hurt US. If we stopped buying from China, that means they would no longer be buying all our debt, their economy would go down buy ½ or more.

China's problem has little to do with the US. It has to do with their population. About ¼ to 1/3 of china's population live in the middle class/upper class. That means that ¾ to 2/3 live in the lower class.

Even at china's growth rate, they can not create enough jobs to pull 300 to 500 MILLION people into the middle class.

That is this guy is earning only a few dollars a day.



In this country they just leave them on the streets while they collect their Dole.

To see the story really breaks my heart, the father is only doing this out of desperate means , it makes you really appreciate the things we have. I would really like to donate and help out this poor guy and kid if there was a way. Perhaps the Daily Mail could help.