Desperate woman owed child support turns up with daughter at ex’s wedding. Errant ex calls police but officers decline to arrest them after learning the truth. — SCMP
A man in China who refused to pay 10,800 yuan (RM6,853) in child support for his seven-year-old daughter from a previous marriage for 18 months has triggered anger on mainland social media.
The reaction was set off after video emerged of the man’s former wife and the daughter he is supposed to support gatecrashing the errant ex-husband’s marriage to his new love to demand payment.
In a video filmed by the ex-wife Zhang Na, who is from Anhui province in eastern China, and her daughter stand next to the wedding car as her ex-husband, Zhang Yongquan, gets out of the vehicle and tries to talk to him, according to a report in Sohu News.
“Daddy, pay for child support,” the daughter says in the video.
Zhang Na said that a local court had ordered her ex to pay 600 yuan (RM380) in support each month. However, she only received one payment of 7,000 yuan (RM4,443) 18 months ago.
Although she tried to contact her ex-husband many times, he did not answer her calls or reply to messages and blocked her on WeChat.
“I can afford to raise my child, but I find his behaviour very hard to swallow,” she told Sohu News.
When she heard he was getting married again she decided to take their daughter and ask him for the money he owed.
When Zhang Yongquan saw Zhang Na and their daughter, he called the police and accused her of causing trouble.
However, after learning the truth from her, the police declined to arrest them, and the mother and daughter stayed to attend the wedding.
Zhang Na said that her ex-husband ignored his daughter during the wedding ceremony .
“He didn’t say a word to his daughter,” she said.
People on mainland social media criticised the ex-husband.
One person said of his new wife: “Bride, are you sure you want to marry this man?”
“Poor little daughter, she must be shocked,” said another.
Stories about divorce payments and child support disputes often gain traction on mainland social media.
Last month, a woman in southwestern China showed up at her ex-husband’s wedding with a banner which read: “Accepting concubines on my husband’s behalf” during a dispute over 1mil yuan (RM634,620) he owed from their divorce settlement.
Late last year, a sterile man in Shanghai who filed for divorce and refused to continue financially supporting a child his wife had with another man while married to him went viral. – South China Morning Post
