A Chinese factory worker was left heartbroken and financially devastated after his fiancée, who claimed to be a military officer, vanished after allegedly fleecing him and his family out of 650,000 yuan (US$91,000).
The 30-something man, surnamed Ji, who had only met the woman a handful of times over an eight-year period, had been under pressure from his parents to get married.
He worked at a car factory in Chengdu, Sichuan province, in southwestern China, and met a woman who uses the pseudonym “Li Hua” through an online dating app in late 2018.
Li claimed to be a “military officer” serving in the Armed Police Force in Dujiangyan City, also in Sichuan province.
In late 2018, Li introduced Ji and his parents to her supposed family in Chishui, Guizhou province, also in southwestern China, where the marriage was “basically decided”.
By 2020, they had even taken wedding photos together.
However, the couple had reportedly only met “four or five times”, usually for brief lunch dates in Dujiangyan before she would rush back to “her unit”.
