Social media-induced compassion fatigue

ON THURSDAY, A WOMAN IN ZHOUKOU, Henan province, called the police, saying her 4-month-old son had gone missing when she fainted in a park. The news spread on social media and with the help of people nationwide, the baby was returned to her on Sunday. Yet there is more to the incident. China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang comments:

According to a statement by the police, rather than being abducted, the woman gave her son to a man, who then took the baby to Zhengzhou, another city 200 kilometers away.

The man is the biological father of the baby. He had a one-night stand with the woman who became pregnant. He had no child, so he asked Liu to give birth, then directed the scenario that unfolded on Thursday in the hope of getting the child without causing any embarrassment to the woman or humiliating her husband..