Foreign Property News | Posted by Zarni Kyaw
A 73-year-old Chinese man who emigrated illegally to the United States three decades ago has returned to China to fight the wife and daughter he abandoned for ownership of their flat, infuriating mainland social media.
Liu Yusheng moved to America 33 years ago with his brother, believing they could earn large fortunes easily, news portal ifeng.com reported. He left his wife and his eight-year-old daughter behind in Shanghai.
Since then, Liu’s wife and daughter have had no contact with him.
Liu’s brother soon returned to China after finding life in the US as an illegal immigrant difficult. But Liu stayed in the country and has been unemployed and homeless for the past three decades, sleeping on the streets.
This changed at the beginning of last year when Liu randomly encountered a woman from Shanghai on the street in New York.
(Despite his dreams of the big time, Liu found life as an illegal immigrant in the US hard and spent three decades on the streets as a homeless person. Photo: Weibo)
Out of sympathy, the woman introduced Liu to the Association of Fellow Shanghainese in the US, hoping they could help him.
Members of the association have raised donations online for Liu by taking videos of him and sharing them on social media. They also arranged for him to live in a shelter and bought food for him.
Liu said in some viral videos that he hoped his family could forgive him and claimed he had no contact since arriving in the US because his money and passport were stolen.
The association’s good intentions extended to attempting to reunite Liu with his family in China, and the group raised US$15,000 to buy him a plane ticket to Shanghai and to cover expenses.
Liu claimed he wanted to care for his wife if reunited with her and vowed to work hard to earn money.
(Thinking they were helping, a group of Chinese Good Samaritans in the US sent Liu back to China believing his claims he would support his family. Photos: Bilibili)
In November last year, Liu flew back to Shanghai. But initially he could not find his wife or daughter. The association later found contact details for his wife and daughter. However, both refused to talk to him or meet him.
“You have been away from home for many years. You have always ignored your family. So our family will also treat you as nonexistent. We won’t be reunited with you,” Liu’s son-in-law, who represented his wife and daughter, told the media. The son-in-law described Liu as an “old nasty man”.
Liu remembered that when he left China in 1990, the state-owned institute he had worked at that time allocated a flat to him where his wife and daughter stayed. The house was demolished years later and the authorities compensated his family with a bigger flat, in which his wife still lives.
Liu asked his wife to let him occupy half the flat or pay him half its market value. The flat, located in downtown Shanghai, is now worth millions of yuan, according to a report by ifeng.com.
Liu is now threatening legal action unless his wife agrees to his demands. His wife has not publicly commented on this threat.
(Local media reports alleging Liu is now demanding half his wife’s home has outraged public sentiment in China. Photo: Bilibili)
Liu is currently staying in a shelter station in Shanghai, according to a video taken by a local volunteer identified by the alias Xing Zhe Dong Tan Xi Shuo.
He denied that he was trying to take his wife’s home and said in the video that he “never had this idea”. Chinese social media has responded angrily to the story.
“I am outraged! I am so angry with him that I cannot breathe. This old guy is so bad!” said one person on Weibo.
“It’s OK to split the house’s ownership. But let’s settle the cost of raising the daughter over the past decades first; costs plus inflation. You give that to your wife first,” another person said.
A third commenter said: “It is not worth sympathising with this kind of person. Since the Chinese compatriots in the US were good-hearted enough to send him back, they should take care of him until his death. Or let’s raise some money to send him back to the US.”
Shen Bo, a China-based lawyer, said it is not clear whether Liu’s marriage with his wife is still valid, but if it is, Liu is not allowed to try and split the house’s ownership, he told the Post.
“If Liu files a divorce lawsuit, it’s quite possible the court will regard Liu as a wrongdoer because of his abandonment of his wife and daughter years ago and the court will be inclined to favour his wife’s interests,” Shen said.
“In the lawsuit, Liu’s wife can seek compensation from him as she has brought up their daughter alone.”
Ref: ‘I want my half’: Chinese man who lived illegally in US after abandoning wife and child 3 decades ago returns, demands they sell home to get his share (scmp)