Recently, the second instance of the "infant robbery case" in Tai'an, Shandong Province was pronounced. The Shandong Provincial Higher People's Court ruled to reject the appeal, uphold the original verdict, and approved the death penalty for the defendant Zeng Xiaotiao for child trafficking, with a two-year suspended execution, deprivation of political rights for life, and confiscation of all personal property. Lu Guangdong and Wang Xuyong were sentenced to life imprisonment, and Yuan Yonggui, who provided key information to Lu Guangdong and others, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
On March 28, CCTV's "The Record of the Trial of the Home-Breaking and Robbery Case" disclosed in detail the details of the first and second trials of the case. At the court hearing of the "Home-Breaking and Robbery Case" in Tai'an, the principal culprit, Zeng Xiaotiao, flatly denied the crime.
The defendant Yuan Yonggui lived less than 3 minutes' walk from the victim's home. He participated in the baby snatching, but he completely denied the crime in court.
Defendant Yuan Yonggui
In court, the defendant's attitude was difficult for the victim's family to accept. "I have called you uncle for more than 30 years, but I didn't expect you to snatch my child away. This is what makes me the most angry." said the father of the victim Jiang Jiaru.
What kind of dehumanizing act caused a family to endure the pain of separation for more than ten years? Facing the verdict, what is the stance of the victim’s family?
Timeline of the "Infant Robbery Case" in Tai'an, Shandong
This case occurred around October 2006. Zeng Xiaotai, a child in Jining, Shandong Province, learned that Liu Mouqiang and Su Mou'e were looking for a baby boy to adopt. They wanted to steal the baby boy and sell it. They gathered Lu Guangdong and Wang Xuyong to participate in the crime, and asked Yuan Yonggui to provide information and promised to pay him. Yuan Yonggui informed villagers in the same village that Jiang Moubing's family had a newborn baby boy, and identified Jiang Moubing's family.
At about 1 o'clock on December 4, 2006, Zeng Zizi, Lu Guangdong, and Wang Xuyong climbed over the wall and entered Jiang Bing's home in Feicheng City, Tai'an. Zeng Zizi and Wang Xuyong used violence and threats to control Jiang Bing and his wife. Lu Guangdong entered the bedroom and took Jiang Jiaru (the victim, 8 months old), the grandson of Jiang Bing, forcibly taken away, and then handed it over to Liu Qiang and Su'e and his wife, and collected 28,600 yuan in cash.
In January 2024, the police used advanced face recognition technology to finally find Jiang Jiaru in Jining, Shandong, and captured Zeng Xiaotai and others in the same month.
In 2025, the first instance of Tai'an Intermediate People's Court sentenced the main criminal Zeng Xiaotiao to death with a two-year reprieve. Lu Guangdong and Wang Xuyong were sentenced to life imprisonment, and Yuan Yonggui was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with criminal compensation of 200,000 yuan. Both the plaintiff and the defendant were dissatisfied with the verdict and appealed separately.
On March 24, 2026, the Shandong Provincial High Court entrusted the Tai'an Intermediate People's Court to pronounce the second instance verdict. It ruled to reject the appeal and uphold the original verdict in accordance with the law. This ruling is final.
Victim’s family: After 17 years, they finally “succeeded in finding their son”
No penalty can make up for the damage
After the verdict of the second instance was announced, Jiang Jiaru and his mother Qiao Shoufen received the ruling and went to worship Jiang Jiaru's grandfather's grave.
Qiao Shoufen said that she hopes to open a new page in her life and continue living in the future. She described that she finally "successfully found her son" after 17 years, but there was no "victory" in this case. Because no penalty can save time and make up for the damage.
"I can only say that I feel a small sense of relief after turning the page, not to mention satisfaction. Just like when others say you have won, I will always be a loser, not a winner. Even if all four of them are sentenced to death, my child and I have been separated from each other for 17 years, and my son has suffered a lot in these 17 years. This cannot be expressed in words."
Previous missing person notices
Jiang Jiaru's family filed a criminal claim of more than 6.77 million yuan in civil claims in the original trial, and the second trial upheld the judgment of compensation of 200,000 yuan. The ruling obtained by reporters from China Voice shows that Jiang Jiaru’s parents claimed that they spent transportation, accommodation and other expenses during the search for relatives, but did not provide evidence to prove that the scope of civil compensation and the amount of 200,000 yuan supported by the original court based on the specific circumstances of the case were in compliance with legal provisions.
Li Sheng, the attorney representing Jiang Jiaru's family, said that they value the criminal verdict more than civil compensation. The second-instance verdict is a spiritual comfort to Jiang Jiaru's parents, has good social benefits for people looking for relatives, and can also deter criminals. It is hoped that it will have a good effect on the rule of law.
The ruling also mentioned that Zeng Xiaotiao, the main culprit who robbed and abducted Jiang Jiaru, refused to truthfully confess the facts of the crime after being brought to justice, and had a poor attitude of admitting guilt and repentance. During the second trial, he reported and exposed other people's crimes, which was verified by the Shandong Provincial People's Procuratorate to be untrue and cannot be regarded as meritorious service.
Currently, Jiang Jiaru is a sophomore at a university in Shandong, and is gradually integrating into the biological family of his parents and brothers. He said, "I have been confused in my heart until the police told me that I was not my biological biological child, so I decided to try to establish contact with my biological family and feel their love."
Public Security: There is no crime of “robbing babies” in the criminal law
Robbery is an aggravating circumstance for the crime of trafficking
This case was called a "baby-robbing case" by public opinion, and the crime found by the court was child abduction and trafficking. Hu Xiangyu, head of the Sichuan Public Security Provincial Reunion Studio and instructor of the First Team of the Criminal Investigation Detachment of the Mianyang Public Security Bureau, who has long been engaged in anti-trafficking and family-finding work, said that there is no crime of "baby snatching" in the "Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China", but the three forms of child trafficking include abduction, theft and snatching. From the perspective of criminal law, snatching may be an aggravating circumstance of the crime of kidnapping.
Jiang Jiaru was snatched away and trafficked when he was 8 months old, and was found through facial recognition technology when he was 17 years old. Hu Xiangyu told China Voice that compared with traditional DNA comparison, face recognition is supported by a more comprehensive database and can be more proactive. However, because the face changes greatly from infants to adults, this technology needs to be further developed and improved.
