Chinese man solves decades-old mystery of family’s missing cash … the government took it
Son was searching for the 500,000 yuan his father put in the bank in 1948, but never withdrew
A man who tried to trace 500,000 yuan (HK$632,000) in savings his father put in the bank a year before the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 has discovered the state took the cash, according to a newspaper report.
The man’s father put the money in a bank in Hangzhou in eastern Zhejiang province in 1948 and the son contacted the press to see if they could help trace it, the Qianjiang Evening News reported.
The 78-year-old told the newspaper his father had not withdrawn any of the money, but the family had kept his bank books.
They contacted branches of the bank in Hangzhou and Taipei, which was not named in the report, in the 1960s and late 1980s, but failed to get any of the money back.
The man, who was named only by his family name Xie, said he was inspired to give it a second try after he learned earlier this month that the British Treasury has finally repaid a £1.9 billion (HK$21.7 billion) war loan it owed from a century ago.
“If the British could repay their state bonds issued a century ago, would there be a settlement for my savings?” Xie told the paper.