“My friend asked if I had lost my child. I was completely stunned,” Wang told Chinese Business View.

“This little girl really looks like my daughter, even her facial expression is the same,” she said.

Because her daughter was born through artificial insemination and the hospital was storing additional embryos for a possible second child, Wang suspected that there might have been a mistake or that her embryos had been misused.

Wang underwent an IVF procedure at a hospital in Shanghai in May 2018 and spent about 70,000 to 80,000 yuan (about 7,400 to 8,600 euros) on the treatment, which included the removal of several eggs and the implantation of embryos.

“IVF is not just about retrieving an egg. There could have been a mistake where my child was given to someone else, or maybe the doctor made a mistake,” Wang said.

“We dare not accuse the hospital of wrongdoing without evidence, but if there was a violation, we must deal with it.”

Wang said she plans to contact the girl’s family to conduct a DNA test to determine if there is a biological link.

However, her attempt to reach the family through the blogger who published the video was not possible because no contact details were stored.

Wang then launched a public video appeal to contact the girl’s family.

“I just want to find this family to confirm the situation. If the similarity is purely coincidental, we might even become friends. We have no bad intentions,” Wang said.

“Although we have no right to make any demands, we still want an answer.”

Some netizens in China agreed about the similarity in their appearance, but many dismissed their concerns as “conspiracy theories.”

“It’s just that the kids look alike. Why is she bothering to find the family? What is she trying to prove?” one person said.

“Isn’t it possible that the other girl was born naturally and it’s just a coincidence that they look alike?” asked another.

“She is just causing trouble. If there is a problem, she should go to the hospital and not bother the other family. This should be dealt with privately and not posted online,” said a third person.

On August 18, the parents of the missing girl clarified online that their daughter, now two and a half years old, was born naturally and that they had reported the incident to the police in Shanghai.

Wang later deleted the video she posted while searching for the family.

According to data from the National Health Commission released in June 2024, about 300,000 babies are born through IVF each year, or 2 percent of all newborns in the country.

Access to assisted reproductive technologies is reserved exclusively for heterosexual couples with fertility problems and is not available to unmarried couples.