An elderly couple from China’s Henan province took legal action against their own son for neglecting his duty of financially supporting them.

Filial piety isn’t that important of a notion in the Western world, but in China it’s a big deal. Failing to take care of your elderly parents is actually considered a legal offense both in China and in other countries with large Chinese communities, like Singapore or Taiwan. It’s actually not uncommon for parents to sue their offspring for neglecting them in their old age, and while most reconcile their differences before having punitive measures enforced, some don’t and police, revenue service and banks have to get involved. Such was the case of an elderly couple whose son flat out refused to support them even after being ordered to by a judge.

Photo: moerschy/Pixabay

According to Chinese news portal Sohu, Mr. and Mrs. Zhang, an elderly couple from Henan Province’s Xiangcheng District, originally sued their son for neglecting to support them financially last year. After a short court battle, on May 10, 2019 the son was ordered by a the district’s People’s Court to pay a set alimony to his mother and father every month, but he continued to ignore his legal duty.

Almost an entire year went by without the elderly couple receiving a single yuan from their son, so the two heartbroken parents decided to involve the police and enforce the judge’s verdict. First, a police officer called their son advised him to start fulfilling his legal duty to his parents, but after the man flat out refused, social workers stated and investigation and discovered that he had plenty of money in his bank accounts, but simply refused to pay.

Photo: Sohu

The bank where the ungrateful son kept most of his money was reportedly contacted by state workers to freeze his accounts until all of the money owed to his parents has been paid.

Having to witness the couple of over 70 years of age still having to rely on the law to receive allowances from their own children, it just feels heartbreaking,” one of the police officers involved in this case told Sohu. “I hope that everyone knows that taking care of parents is the responsibility of their children, so that painful things like this don’t happen again.”