The case of Gao Yanmin, a woman who was tragically abducted, trafficked and sold 21 years ago to a remote village in Baoding, Hebei province, and who now has been turned into a "role model" by the authorities for becoming a rural school teacher has caused great controversy online, even as local police have begun investigations into her case, reported Hushang Daily, a local paper based in Xi'an, Shaanxi province on Thursday.
Chen Shiqu, chief of the Anti-trafficking Office of China's Ministry of Public Security, stated clearly on his verified Weibo account on the Gao Yanmin case that human traders and buyers should be punished without tolerance and sympathy and victims should be helped.
Gao Yanmin's horrific story ignited public rage about the authorities' inaction after her story was reported in 2006 and she was set up as a role model for people who had been trafficked since she settled down in the poor village where her buyer lives and taught local children in school.
Gao Yanmin was defrauded by two women who said they could find her a job at a train station in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province in 1996. She was abducted and sent to a man in Quyang county in Hebei to be his wife for the price of 2,700 yuan after being resold three times.
At the beginning when she lived with the man, she tried to run away once but was tracked down and beaten up by her husband. Then she attempted suicide three times, but was saved each time. Faced with the stark reality of her condition, she settled down to live on in horror.
She soon had children and worked as a substitute teacher in a local primary school since 2000 where there was a lack of teachers and education resources. She devoted her life to the students with negligible pay and bought books for students who didn't have enough money to keep them in the school.
Gao's plight was put under the spotlight in 2006 when local media heaped praises on her for her devotion to her students and her forgiveness of those who harmed her, dubbing her "the most beautiful rural teacher". A year later, she was nominated for a provincial award as a role model. Her story received wide media coverage and was even adapted as a movie in 2009.
Gao's story has been noticed and posted online again by an Internet user this week then soon spread like a virus on most Chinese news outlets and popular social networks like Sina Weibo and WeChat.
Netizens questioned the narrative that minimized the problem of human trafficking and abduction while focusing instead on Gao's resignation to her fate. They felt that the people responsible for her plight were not held accountable, and that it was a twisted value system that held her up to be a role model for accepting her fate.
A Weibo user said: "I could not understand why the social tragedy and embarrassment became a model." Another Weibo user commented: "How could you have the nerve to ask a victim to shoulder the responsibility while letting the traffickers go unpunished?"
Zeng Yaxian, writer and columnist with news portal sina.com, called for an end of hardships for Gao and a return of her dignity.
