Officer's 'white lie' offers hope to bereaved mother

A Shanghai police officer has posed as a mentally ill woman's dead son for five years to protect her from the painful truth.

Jiang Jingwei, 36, met his "parents" for the first time on a television show in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, after producers received an appeal from Xia Zhanhai to help find him.

Xia lost his eldest son Liang Yu after a gas leak in the family home in 2003. His wife, Liang Qiaoying, was also left paralyzed and brain damaged by the accident.