The tragedy of a Chinese toddler who choked to death on the tapioca bubbles in his milk tea has sparked heated online discussion about parental responsibility.

On October 24, the three-year-old’s father, surnamed Li, posted a surveillance video of a playground in a shopping centre in eastern China’s Zhejiang province.

In the clip, the boy takes a sip of the bubble tea his mother bought him before playing on a trampoline on October 19.

Li said his son passed out a minute later and despite his mother’s attempts, she was unable to revive him.

The boy was rushed to the hospital in his parents’ car but emergency treatment failed to save him.

The cause of his death was the tapioca bubbles in the tea.

The bubbles were about 10 mm in size, too big for a toddler’s airways once they are swallowed down the wrong pipe. Also, tapioca is too sticky for the mother’s Heimlich manoeuvre to work.