CHINA : A child in China has sued his father for withdrawing his savings. In Zhengzhou, a city in northern China’s Henan province, a father had opened a bank account in the name of a child named Xiao Hui years ago and had been depositing the child’s so-called “red envelope money” into it. But one day, he withdrew all the money without the child’s permission and spent it on his own wedding. Xiao Hui had been living with his father since his parents divorced two years ago. During this time, his Lunar New Year money, commonly known as ‘red envelope money’, and other savings were regularly deposited into the same bank account. But after some time, another woman came into his father’s life and he decided to remarry. At that time, Xiao Hui was sent to live with his mother. After the father’s second marriage, the child’s biological mother somehow learned that her ex-husband had taken out all of her son’s savings and spent them on the wedding expenses. By then, Xiao Hui had accumulated about 80,000 yuan (about 11,700 US dollars), which is considered a significant amount of money for a child of that age. When Xiao Hui asked his father for his savings, he was told that most of the money had come from family and friends, and that he would only return it when Xiao Hui became an adult. After several unsuccessful attempts to convince his father, Xiao Hui finally took his father to court. The father tried to convince the court that as legal guardian he had the right to manage his son’s savings as he saw fit, and that the entire lawsuit was actually filed at the instigation of the child’s mother. However, the court ruled that the gift money was legally Xiao Hui’s personal property, and that her father, despite being her legal guardian, had violated that right. In its ruling, the court ordered Xiao Hui’s father to return the entire amount with interest. The total amount is 82,750 yuan (about 12,060 US dollars).
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