THE FAMILIAR STRANGER

"Go to bed on time, whether we're home or not."

"Do not stay out late, or you'll face the consequences."

"Just behave yourself."

Handwritten notes like these are posted on walls and furniture in the shabby one-bedroom apartment Li Yilong shares with his parents in Guangxi's Nandan County.

This is the only mode of communication between the parents and their child.

Like Huang Bo, Li Yilong was abducted and sold to Fujian in 2006, when he was only four years old.

The vivacious preschooler became taciturn after police took him home in the summer of 2010. "I know for sure he's my son, but he's more like a stranger," said his father Li Minghuan. "He often cries and refuses to do what we tell him to do."

His parents don't scold him when he breaks the rules, fearing he would leave if they did.

The couple carefully blocks out any information about his foster parents. "We hope he'll soon become an integral part of our family and recognize us as his only parents," said the elder Li.

But he is not certain when this familiar stranger will open up to him, or even call him "dad."

While it is hard for children like Huang Bo and Li Yilong to shake off the nightmare of being abducted, being forcibly separated from their new families -- mostly childless couples who cherish these children as their own -- turns out to be a painful experience.

The Ministry of Public Security launched a special campaign in April 2009 to bring abducted children home. By the end of last year, police authorities had busted on 11,000 child trafficking rings and returned 54,000 abducted children to their homes.

With Children's Day just around the corner, the well-being of these returned children has garnered widespread attention.

Experts say psychological counseling is essential for these children in confronting their experience and adjusting to life at home and in school.

"The situation is more worrying among older children who have become affectionate with their foster parents," said Ye Weiwei, who works for China Charities Aid Foundation for Children.

"Their psychological problems are often neglected when all of society celebrates their family reunions, as if this were the end of their tragedies."

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