Chinese supermarket sells bottles with photographs of missing children

Supermarkets in China have been helping heart-broken parents search for their missing sons and daughters by selling bottled water labelled with missing child advertisements.

Footage shows packs of the products, printed with pictures and information of the disappearing youngsters, being displayed at a grocery shop in the north-western Chinese city Xi'an.

Child abduction is a serious issue in China. Around 200,000 boys and girls are estimated to be missing every year, according to reports.

Among those missing children, only 200, or 0.1 per cent, would be able to find their parents at some point in their lives, according to a Chinese news report.

The bottled water carrying missing child advertisements is a campaign initiated by Bao Bei Hui Jia, or 'Baby Come Home', a major Chinese charity that helps families find their missing children.

Since 2017, the organisation has been working with Lanxiang, a Chinese beverage company, to sell the soda water labelled with information about disappearing youngsters, reported Chinese media.

The campaign was brought to light once again after the products were recently spotted at a supermarket in Xi'an of Shaanxi province. Footage released by Shaanxi Television today shows packs of the bottled water being sold at the price of one yuan (£0.11) at the grocery store.

The bottle label contains a picture of the missing child, along with the location and date when the youngster disappears and their date of birth. The advertisement wrote: 'No matter who you are, please help our children return home.'

The Chinese charity told the local station that people had contacted them with tips about missing children after the bottled water started being sold at supermarkets. Information on the labels gets updated regularly and will be removed once the child is found, says the Shaanxi TV channel.

The organisation has also been working with other Chinese businesses to help expand the search radar for missing children by displaying those advertisements, according to their website. Human trafficking has been a serious issue in Chinese society. Although there are no official figures, media reports suggest that between 20,000 to 200,000 youngsters are snatched away from their families in the country every year. Some are bought, some are simply stolen. They end up as labourers, in forced marriages or as the adoptees of wealthy families, either in China itself or overseas.s