A man calling himself a die-hard fighter against child abductors and traffickers exposed on his micro blog on Dec 2 that some people who purchased children from kidnappers obtained household registrations, or legal identities, for them in Fujian province in 2016, with birth certificates bought on the black market. Many of the birth certificates purchased for this purpose were among those that the Shangqiu Maternal and Child Health Hospital in Henan province claimed to have lost 10 years ago, when the public hospital reported to local public security department that a total of 4,885 birth certificates were "missing".

On Tuesday, the authorities of Shangqiu said they will investigate the case that has remained a puzzle till now.

The thousands of lost birth certificates represent only the tip of the iceberg, indicating the scale of the illegal business nationwide. The public has every reason to believe, as the case demonstrates, that child abduction and trafficking are still rampant in some parts of the country.

Although it remains unknown how many children, and their families, are victims of this crime, the sizable lost population database the public security department runs to help parents to look for lost or abducted children, and vice versa, speaks volumes of what a long journey the country has yet to cover to eliminate this hurtful practice.

As many cases prove, were it not for the ignominious roles some insiders in the public health and public security departments play, it would be virtually impossible for the buyers of the abducted children to obtain legal identities for them.

In other words, it is malfeasant medical staff and civil servants who make child abducting viable and therefore profitable for those willing to commit such an act. It is also profitable for these facilitators of the dirty trade.

Regretfully, few such insiders have been punished over the past decades while the authorities have dealt heavy blows, through a series of campaigns, to the child abductors and traffickers. And the law has also turned its sights onto the buyers of the kidnapped children.

Given the advancement of information technologies and DNA identification, tackling the crime is easier than it used to be. Sadly, though it has not yet been eliminated, the crime causes lifetime sorrow for both the abducted children and their families. Those in the public health and security systems who are found to be complicit in the crime should be severely punished to deter others from being accomplices to the crime.