Chinese blogger demands answers over ‘missing’ millions in fund to help ‘left-behind children’ from poor families

A man is taking legal action against two local governments in southern China to make them reveal what happened to a 180 million yuan (HK$212 million) fund to help “left-behind children” from poor families in the area, a newspaper reported.

The man, a well-known blogger Zhou Xiaoyun, started wondering about what happened to the cash when four children left to fend for themselves in Bijie in Guizhou province killed themselves in June last year by drinking pesticide, the Beijing Times said.

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As in similar cases involving “left-behind children”, their father was a migrant worker living away from home.

The fund was started by the city’s government in 2012 after five other “left-behind children” in Bijie died sheltering from the cold in a rubbish skip.

The plight of similar youngsters, usually living in impoverished areas in China, has sparked a debate over whether the authorities do enough to help them while their parents are away working.

It was promised that the money in the Bijie fund would be used to improve children’s living conditions and medical care.

Zhou filed a request to the Bijie municipal government in June last year asking for details of how the fund had been spent and what impact had been made.