At the end of August, Beijing police reported that this year they had solved 100 percent of kidnapping cases in the capital. It was the first time the Beijing police had issued a press release on kidnappings. 

The press release referred to high-profile incidents, such as in July when police shot dead a knife-wielding hostage taker at Hujialou Subway Station.

While it's good that the police have finally issued a press release on the matter, the fact that they declined to elaborate on specific numbers of cases is not good enough.

We don't need to read about pats on the back; we need names, faces and statistics of those missing around the country. There's always more that can be done, and the police should be striving to raise as much awareness as possible.

Kidnapping cases require public participation and cooperation, particularly in the less attention-grabbing cases that lack hostage-taking drama.

Every year, tens of thousands of children are abducted and sold in China. Nobody knows how many exactly, partly because it's an uncomfortable topic that people would rather not discuss.

Most victims are children of poor parents, who lack the means to have their voices heard. These kids are taken from the countryside and sold to buyers who desperately want children and are willing to pay tens of thousands of yuan.

A 2007 report claimed that around 190 children were abducted daily in China, with trafficking driven by the cultural preference for boys and parents who are willing to do whatever it takes to have a male heir. Those who are willing to buy children also need to be punished and publicly shamed (provided it doesn't impact the child) to ensure there is no market.

Charles Custer, an American blogger formerly based in Beijing, has produced a documentary entitled Living With Dead Hearts (2012) that aims to shed light on what life is like for parents searching for their missing kids.

It's hard enough watching these parents grieve in the trailer for the documentary, wondering what their children are doing around the time of Spring Festival. I can't imagine what it must be like to experience.

Projects like this make a difference because public participation is important in kidnapping cases. Consider the case of Peng Gaofeng, who last year was reunited with his son kidnapped in 2008. This was thanks to an online campaign entitled "Take a picture to rescue begging children" that encourages people to post pictures of child beggars. These children have sometimes been kidnapped by criminals seeking to turn a profit. The website has reunited over half a dozen kids with their parents.

Kidnappings occur in the capital for very different reasons because it's probably much easier to steal poor children from powerless parents in the countryside if you're looking to sell or exploit them.

But the only way to know for sure is to get statistics from the police.

I, for one, would really like to know how many children go missing in Beijing each year, particularly migrant children. In a city of 20 million, it's surely more than zero. The police should be transparent enough to tell us.