US siblings Victor and Cynthia Liu finally leave China as exit ban is lifted
- Prevented from leaving since 2018 visit, they were allowed to fly home hours after deal to shelve US fraud charges against Meng Wanzhou
- ‘We oppose the use of coercive exit bans against people who are not themselves charged with crimes,’ US state department says
The American siblings, Victor and Cynthia Liu, landed back in the United States on Sunday after flying from Shanghai on Saturday, ending a three-year limbo imposed by an “exit ban” from the Chinese authorities.
Neither Liu sibling had been accused of wrongdoing, but they were prevented from leaving China in June 2018 following a visit to the country – a move their lawyers said was designed to pressure their estranged father to cooperate with police in a fraud case. The US state department confirmed their return home.
“We oppose the use of coercive exit bans against people who are not themselves charged with crimes,” the department said. “We will continue to advocate on behalf of all American citizens in [China] subject to arbitrary detention and coercive exit bans.”
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In a 2019 video aired by US media, Cynthia Liu had said her father had “abandoned my family many years ago”. “We are not in touch with him, nor do we have any way of contacting him,” she said.
After their 2018 trip to China, Victor Liu had been about to start his second year at Georgetown University and Cynthia was to begin working at consulting firm McKinsey & Company in New York.
