The presiding judge of the case, Liu Qing, said in an interview with a reporter that China's law clearly stipulates that legitimate and illegitimate children enjoy equal rights. Specifically in this case, the focus of the dispute should be whether the plaintiff Zhang has established an adoptive relationship with others, thereby determining whether he/she enjoys the inheritance rights of his/her biological parents.
However, the court investigation confirmed that the plaintiff Zhang was adopted by others as early as 1967. According to relevant provisions of China's Adoption Law, from the date the adoption relationship is established, the rights and obligations between adoptive parents and adoptive children shall apply to the legal provisions on the relationship between parents and children; the rights and obligations between adoptive children and close relatives of adoptive parents shall apply to the legal provisions on the relationship between children and close relatives of their parents. The rights and obligations between adoptive children and biological parents and other close relatives shall be terminated due to the establishment of the adoption relationship. Therefore, after the establishment of the adoption relationship, Zhang only has a physiological or blood-related parent-child relationship with his/her biological parents, but his/her biological parents no longer have the obligation to raise and educate him/her, and he/she also does not have the obligation to support and assist his/her biological parents, and both parties no longer have the right to inherit each other's estate.
Liu Qing particularly explained that the current Adoption Law came into effect on April 1, 1992, and explicitly requires that adoption must go through registration procedures. Therefore, there are currently two modes for recognizing adoption relationships: factual recognition and registration recognition. Before the promulgation of the Adoption Law in 1992, the standard for judgment was whether an actual adoption relationship had been formed between the adopter and the adopted; after the promulgation of the Adoption Law in 1992, according to the regulations, the establishment of the adoption relationship must be recognized by registration with the civil affairs department.
In this case, the plaintiff Zhang was adopted by others in 1967, so the relevant regulations at that time should apply. If the adoption relationship meets the relevant regulations at the time, it is valid, that is, the standard of whether a factual adoption relationship has been established is used to determine whether both parties have formed an adoption relationship.