Meanwhile, China’s booming begging industry also exploits the theme of urban invisibility. Because begging in China is often more profitable than farming or manual labor, some panhandlers have turned their profession into family businesses. Those without children have taken to kidnapping toddlers, maiming them, and making them beg in the streets under the (correct) assumption that handicapped children elicit more sympathy than able-bodied adults. According to the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs, China currently has 1.5 million child beggars, many of whom were abducted.
Yang Weixin, a kidnapped child beggar with broken legs
Now I don’t like beggars or children and certainly don’t object to child labor, but people need to like, stop breaking legs. Or something.