Two American brothers who have been barred from leaving China since 2018 are now allowed to travel back to the United States.
In June 2018, Chinese authorities “exit restrictionsVictor and Cynthia Liu, both US citizens, visit relatives in China. A State Department spokesperson said they “welcome the return of Cynthia and Victor Liu, who arrived in the United States last Sunday.”
“Our consular team in Shanghai helped facilitate your departure,” the spokesman said on Tuesday (28), adding that he confirmed this after direct consultation with the family.
Victor and Cynthia Liu declined to comment on the matter. David Pressman, a former US government official and attorney leading the case, said Tuesday that “at last, two young Americans are back in the United States, able to once again enjoy the daily blessings of freedom that we All too often it takes pleasure in the country.”
“After years of hard work by many, it was a privilege to finally be able to hug Victor and Cynthia and welcome them home,” he said in a statement.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Victor and Cynthia Liu returned to the US after Chinese police lifted restrictions on their travel movements, insisting that the sanctions be an “independent judicial act” based on China’s “rule of law”. Was.
“The handling of the Liu case was an independent judicial act. China is a country with the rule of law,” Hua said. “Anyone, regardless of nationality, as long as they are suspected of illegal crimes, can leave the country in accordance with the law.” should be banned and Chinese law enforcement agencies will handle it in accordance with law.”
In August 2019, Victor Liu, a student at Georgetown, told CNN that his family was imprisoned in China to pressure his father, Liu Changming, a Chinese fugitive, to return to Beijing, where he is still wanted for financial crimes. Cynthia and Victor Liu said that their father had left the family years ago and they had no contact with him.
Liu brothers’ mother, Sandra Han separated from their children in 2018 and lives in China.
The brother and sister made a public appeal about their plight, and Cynthia Liu wrote a letter to Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat, asking for his help. In 2019, he also appealed to the then President Donald Trump for help.
Markey and his fellow Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts praised the Liu brothers’ return to the United States in a joint statement, saying they were “detained in China as pawns of the Chinese government.” The senators also said they would work with the Biden government to secure her mother’s release.
A bipartisan group of senators, including Markey, re-introduced legislation in April that calls on Chinese officials “to formulate or enforce a policy that prevents innocent American citizens from leaving China.”
In a travel release issued in 2019, the State Department warned of “coercive” use of restrictions on exiting China to US citizens.
A State Department spokesman said on Tuesday: “We oppose the ban on forced exit against those who are not accused of crimes.
“We will continue to advocate for the prohibition of arbitrary detention and coercion on behalf of all US citizens,” he said.
caso meng wenzhou
The “exit ban” of Victor and Cynthia Liu, both US citizens, follows an agreement between the US Justice Department and Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou to postpone the trial of US charges against him until the end of 2022.
The agreement allowed Meng, who was detained in Canada, to return to China. After Meng’s release, Beijing also freed two Canadian citizens, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.
Meng was arrested at Vancouver International Airport following a US warrant, and indicted on bank fraud charges for allegedly defrauding HSBC in 2013 over Huawei’s commercial talks in Iran.
(Text translated, read in original English right here)
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