While China's leaders convened in Beijing for its most important government meeting of the year, the rest of the country was transfixed by a car theft gone tragically awry in the northeast.
The strangulation of a 2-month-old baby left in the backseat of the stolen vehicle has unleashed an outpouring of anguish and soul-searching online over the state of morality in China's quickly changing society at a time when leaders are trying to assure its citizens of their nation's progress.
The incident took place on Monday when a father in the city of Changchun left his baby sleeping in his silver SUV as he ran inside his family's supermarket to turn on the stove. He returned to find the car gone along with the baby, named Xu Haobo, according to local authorities. The father later explained to local media that he left the baby in the SUV because he was worried the store would be too cold.