Abducted pregnant Vietnamese older than previously suspected

Police have confirmed that an abducted pregnant girl, whose story received wide attention on social media, is Vietnamese and is 19 years old, not 12 years old as she originally claimed.

According to the Ministry of Public Security's criminal investigation bureau, Vietnam authorities who were asked to help with the investigation confirmed that the girl is Vietnamese and was born in 1997.

The ministry has formed a special team with the Xuzhou Public Security Bureau in Jiangsu province to further investigate the case, according to the ministry's Weibo account.

The girl, who is 14 weeks pregnant, was unable to confirm her name, date of birth and address at a hospital in Xuzhou.

In early October, the girl was taken to Xuzhou No 4 People's Hospital to receive a prenatal examination.

The girl's young appearance and inability to speak Chinese arose the suspicions of doctors, who called police to help assess whether the girl was a victim of human trafficking or rape.

The girl, who told local police that she was 12 years old, could only understand simple Chinese and was not willing to communicate, police said.

An investigation found that two Vietnamese human traffickers had abducted her in 2014 and taken her to Central China's Henan province, where a go-between surnamed Xie introduced her to a man surnamed Liu in Xu - zhou's Tongshan district.

The 35-year-old Liu, who was unable to find a wife due to poverty, paid Xie a betrothal fee of 30,000 yuan ($4,500). The girl then lived under the pretext of the man's wife until she went for the prenatal examination.

Liu and Xie were detained in October by local police, who are searching for others related to the case in Henan province.

Police said the girl has been transferred to a safe place.

Other incidents involving Vietnamese women and girls being trafficked to China's poor areas have been reported recently.

In mid-October, police in Tengzhou, Shandong province, detained five suspects for abducting an 18-year-old Vietnamese woman who was sold for 80,000 yuan.

In September, police in Yunnan province saved 32 abducted Vietnamese and detained 75 suspects from China and Vietnam.