$420 thousand is at stake: in China, stepbrothers and sisters clash over the inheritance of their adoptive parents (3 photos)

In China, a woman decided to sue her brother for part of his inheritance of $420,000 after the death of his adoptive parents, but was only able to get $77,000. But the real drama in the courtroom was not about money.





Sun, the head of a family from the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, died in March 2025, transferring ownership of a property worth three million yuan exclusively to his son before his death.

He also left a statement asking the heir to pay "reasonable compensation" to his adopted daughter.

"Our daughter is adopted, but we have always treated her as our own. In her later years, our son took care of us. We handed over the house to him, and he intends to compensate his sister. We hope that you can get along with each other like real brother and sister," the statement reads. However, the adopted daughter contested the inheritance, arguing that the deed of transfer of property was signed only by her father, meaning that her mother's share should still be included in the inheritance.

"Since the deed was signed only by him, my mother's share should be considered part of the inheritance. This house was given to me by my parents, and no one can take it away from me," the woman said in court.

The plaintiff was adopted by Sun and his wife in 1966. Seven years later, they had a son, and they grew up together. It is not known when their mother died.

A dispute over her parents' inheritance has become a battle that has erupted in the Nankai District People's Court in Tianjin.

During the trial, the sister unexpectedly presented new evidence that her brother's house registration documents were marked "adopted," proving that he is not her biological child.



The statement caused her brother to "break down" in court. However, he insisted that after a family dispute over property in the 1990s, his sister had severed ties with the family, and that he had taken care of his parents alone until their deaths, refusing to share the property.

The judge said that under the Civil Code, adoption does not affect legal inheritance rights. Despite the lack of biological relationship, both parties have equal status as heirs.

However, since the disputed property was legally transferred and notarized in 2007, it is no longer part of the inheritance. After three hours of intense wrangling, an agreement was reached. The property will remain with the brother, and he will pay the sister 550,000 yuan ($77,000) in compensation.

The dramatic turn of events has sparked heated discussions on social media in mainland China.

"Both children were adopted, but only the boy was kept in the dark. The boy was treated as a biological son, with the truth hidden from him. The daughter knew about it from the very beginning. It is not surprising that discord arose because of the home", "I thought that such dramatic plots only happen in TV series", - commentators write on social networks.