A prominent Chinese blogger has filed a lawsuit demanding that authorities in Guizhou and Bijie provide information detailing how a fund allotted to help “left-behind children” was spent.

Zhou Xiaoyun, a well-known blogger, wonders how the money, which amounted to 177 million yuan ($26.87 million USD), was spent. He reportedly demanded full disclosure regarding the funds on June 16, 2015, after four left-behind children in Bijie, Guizhou province drank pesticide on June 9, killing themselves, according to Beijing Times.

Like Us on Facebook

The father of the four children is reportedly a migrant worker, who had to leave his children three months earlier to work away from home. Their mother had also left them a year earlier.

This is a common trend among families in impoverished areas of China.

The fund to help left-behind children was started by the Bijie government in 2012 after five children, who were left behind by their parents for various reasons, died trying to keep themselves warm by burning charcoal inside a roadside dumpster. They died of suffocation.

The Chinese government allots about 60 million yuan annually to help take care of such children left behind by their parents. However, tragedies of this kind still occurs in the country.

Zhou, a former investigative reporter, wonders how the money has been spent and what effects it has had in helping the children.

His request for full discosure in June was turned down. The local government reportedly replied him a month later, saying that the information he is requesting “does not exist." The government did say, however, that a total of 177.24 million yuan was released over three years to help care for the children.

"I need more details about where the money goes and why there is still a high frequency of such offenses," Zhou said.

Zhou approached the Guizhou provincial government in October, requesting that Bijie authorities are ordered to publish the relevant documents, but his request was also turned down.

In December 2015, Zhou decided to file an administrative lawsuit against the authorities in Guizhou and Bijie at the Intermediate People's Courts in Guiyang. The court has agreed to hear the case.

TagsZhou Xiaoyun, 'left behind children', millions of left-behind children, left-behind, Bijie