Chinese American family detained in China

Victor and Cynthia Liu travelled to China with their mother and have not been allowed to return home.

ASAM NEWS

CHINA IS HOLDING HOSTAGE two Chinese American children and their mother in a bid to get their father to turn himself in, reports the New York Times

Liu Changming is accused in a $1.4 billion fraud case. The family believes authorities in China are trying to force the former executive of a state owned bank, to return to China to face criminal charges.

Victor and Cynthia Liu landed in China in June to visit their sick grandfather. He is a sophomore at Georgetown University and she works at a consulting firm. When they tried to return to the U.S., they were prevented at the airport from leaving. Police also detained their mother, Sandra Han, who had accompanied her children to China. She is being held in a secret site known as the black jail. All three are American citizens.

The family claims Changming severed ties with the family in 2012.

“The investigative officers have made abundantly clear that neither my brother nor I am under any form of investigation,” Ms. Liu, 27, wrote to John Bolton, National Security Adviser, in August. “We are being held here as a crude form of human collateral to induce someone with whom I have no contact to return to China for reasons with which I am entirely unfamiliar.”

The family claims Changming severed ties with the family in 2012.

“The investigative officers have made abundantly clear that neither my brother nor I am under any form of investigation,” Ms. Liu, 27, wrote to John Bolton, National Security Adviser, in August. “We are being held here as a crude form of human collateral to induce someone with whom I have no contact to return to China for reasons with which I am entirely unfamiliar.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has a different take.

“The people you mentioned all own legal and valid identity documents as Chinese citizens. Because they are suspected of economic crimes, they are restricted from exiting the country by the Chinese police in accordance with the law,” it said to the Times.

According to the Insider, Changming fled China in 2007 and his whereabouts are unknown. China listed him on its 100 most wanted fugitive list in 2015.

China has held foreigners in the past to force cooperation from family members.

The Insider reports it placed the wife of Liu Xiabao, a human rights activist, under house arrest for eight years.

It also prevented the family of outspoken Chinese Canadian actress, Anastasia Lin, from leaving the country in 2016.
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