When a child is abandoned by their parents, they shouldn’t owe their folks anything. This wasn’t the case for one woman, who was sued by her estranged parents after she refused to buy her younger brother an apartment.
The woman, named Zhang, from Guangzhou in southern China, was abandoned by her parents when she was two-years-old and has had no relationship with them since. At the time, the now 29-year-old’s parents couldn’t financially support her and have since rarely contacted her throughout her life.
Zhang had instead been raised by her father’s sister and considers them to be her biological family. Recently, Zhang used her savings to buy her cousin an apartment, which is when her biological parents popped back into her life.
They demanded that she also buy her biological brother an apartment. When Zhang refused, her parents filed a lawsuit against her for 500,000 yuan or around $72,000 in parental maintenance.
They had some rights to do so as well. Under the Civil Code of China, adult children have a legal obligation to support their parents regardless of estrangement or abandonment, making their claim lawful, despite being ridiculous.
The court eventually ruled that although Zhang is not obligated to buy her brother an apartment, she will still need to negotiate with her parents the amount she will need to pay for the parental maintenance fee.