A 12-year-old Chinese boy has been chained up by his uncle for the past couple of years

It’s claimed that this is for his own safety because he’s mentally handicapped. Cai Changqing, from Erlongshan village in Harbin, north-east China's Heilongjiang Province, is shackled each day to a shabby shelter outside his uncle's home. The uncle, Cai Quan, says that he has to chain his nephew up because, otherwise, he runs away. In 2009, Changqing ran out into the road in the city and was severely injured after being run over by a van. Quan was left to care for Changqing after the boy's mother died and his father was left paralysed from an accident. Following the van accident Changqing started to chain his nephew up each day, using a 16ft-long length of iron chain wrapped around the youngster's waist. His treatment brings to mind other instances of cruelty to children in China. In December 2010, pictures emerged of 12-year-old twins Li Luqin and Li Shuangqin tied up by their father Li Wancheng in Yunnan Province. He began binding them ten years ago for fear that they would hurt themselves. The family currently lives along the roadside in China’s Yunnan Province. The father is trying to save enough money to get medical treatment for the girls. He is adamant that his daughters are not safe to be allowed to roam and the pair have to make do with a life that involves being tied to a fence or a tree – or to each other – every day. Another shocking case that came to light in 2010 was that of a two-year-old boy, Cheng Jingdan, who was pictured chained to a lamp post to stop him getting away while his father worked as a rickshaw driver and his handicapped mother scavenged through garbage.