Gao Yanmin plays with children at a school in Xiagu village, Quyang county, Baoding, Hebei province, May 13, 2015. [Photo/CFP]

Gao's plight was put under a spotlight in 2006 when local media heaped praise on her for her devotion to the students and her forgiveness of those who had harmed her, dubbing her "the most beautiful rural teacher".

A year later, she was nominated for a provincial award as a role model. Her story received wide media coverage and was even adapted into a movie in 2009.

Her story was posted online again by an Internet user this week then soon spread on most Chinese news outlets and popular social networks such as Sina Weibo and WeChat.

Netizens questioned the story that minimized the problem of human trafficking and abduction while focusing instead on Gao's resignation to her fate. They felt that people responsible for her plight were not held accountable, and that it was a twisted system of values that held her up to be a role model for accepting her fate.

Chen Shiqu, chief of the Anti-trafficking Office of China's Ministry of Public Security, said on his Weibo account that human traders and buyers should be punished without tolerance and sympathy and victims should be helped.

Another Weibo user said: "I could not understand why a social tragedy and embarrassment became a model, while a further Weibo user commented: "How could you have the nerve to ask a victim to shoulder the responsibility while letting the traffickers go unpunished?"

Zeng Yaxian, a writer and columnist with news portal sina.com, called for an end to hardship for Gao and a return of her dignity.