3 year-old American Boy’s Story

China is known as one of the safest countries in the world; however, recently, there was an incident where Liam, a three year-old American boy, went missing on November 4.

This incident occurred in the Yuexiu district of the Guangzhou, where, according to a staff member from the Consulate General of the United States in Guangzhou, the boy “was last seen by himself on surveillance footage at 11.50pm in a building near Taojin Metro Station.” At the time of his disappearance, Liam was wearing a blue t-shirt, military print pants, and black and blue flip flops. A search party was quickly organized to help search and find him. This search party met at 6 pm in the front of Central Plaza Center B. A request for information was also sent out on WeChat moments, which some members of our AISG community may have noticed.

After one day and a couple of hours, on November 5, Liam’s status changed from missing to dead. The Consulate General of the United States in Guangzhou confirmed his death at 5:12 pm.

This incident has greatly drawn the attention of local media, as it stands out against the much more common cases of local children being kidnapped. Jennifer G., one of the many students who were interviewed about their opinions on this incident, stated, “The kidnapping of this child shocked me because usually it’s Chinese children who are taken and it caused me to question why was this specific boy targeted.” This occurrence caused many different reactions from the people, majority of them being shock.