A report by the Malay Mail tells the harrowing story of one dedicated Malaysian mother’s ongoing plight to rescue her son from her Chinese national ex-husband that sadly took a turn for the worse. Here’s a timeline of her story:
2012: The first abduction
42-year-old Cheng Chau Yang told the story of her ordeal, which began five years ago in 2012. During this time, her husband suddenly took their then 3-year-old Malaysian-born son away for a week.
Source: Malay Mail
After a week, the husband returned home to Shanghai with their son, whose eczema had flared up due to food poisoning. At this time, she thought it was only a one-off incident.
2013-2014: The second abduction & subsequent legal battles
However, to her horror, Cheng’s husband suddenly abducted their son again in 2013, and hid the boy from her for two years with the help of his family. She could not even contact her husband’s family members during this time.
She then decided to lodge a police report in 2013, but Shanghai police told her they could not do anything unless she won custody of the boy in court.
Cheng somehow managed to find her son between December 2013 and January 2014, but failed to convince her husband to return her son. He then disappeared with the child once again.
Source: Malay Mail
When this transpired, she decided to file for divorce in February 2014 and won custody of her son every step of the way. Despite her victories in court, her husband refused to return the child to her, continuing to hide him. He instead approached different courts to change custody rights. He was then banned from leaving the country, which did not affect him as he was based in China.
2015: The travel ban
Frustrated, Cheng decided to look for her son on her own without any help from the Malaysian or Chinese government, and managed to find him on 11th October 2015, 2,000km away from Shanghai. She found that her poor son wasn’t even living with his father and was instead with her sister-in-law in a rented apartment.
“He attended a local school with a fake local identity. He hated the idea of school, and he couldn’t understand English anymore. We found out also that he had missed much of his kindergarten education.”
“His eczema had flared up ― broken skin all over his body, and dark patches on his forehead. He was weak from lack of exercise, and his self-esteem was rock bottom,” Cheng’s older sister told the daily.
Source: Malay Mail
After finally reuniting with her son, she found out that a travel ban had been imposed on the both of them. The most confusing part of this is that she did not find anything in black and white stating they were banned from leaving China.
She then appealed the travel ban to the Enforcement Court in December 2015.
2016: Failed travel ban appeals & third attempted kidnap
In January 2016, Cheng won custody of her son. The enforcement court then promised her that the travel ban would be lifted if she allowed her ex-husband to visit her son. They even asked her to withdraw her appeal against the ban.
However, this promise fell through as the visit from her ex-husband almost became another kidnapping attempt, leaving her son traumatised.
“The result was my son was nearly snatched away once again outside the court after the visitation, my parents were beaten, and the court didn’t lift the ban. My son was totally frightened and devastated, wet the bed and had nightmares for a long time,” said Cheng.
Later in June 2016, she arranged for another court-supervised visit for her ex-husband, but he insisted on only visiting the boy if he could take him home without any supervision.
Source: Malay Mail
What makes things even more frustrating and unfair is that Cheng was told that she could only leave China with her son if her ex-husband agrees to it. The distraught mother said,
“The Enforcement Court told me it is impossible to lift the ban, even if visitations take place, as there is always a next visitation. As long as [the ex-husband] refused to lift the ban, the Enforcement Court will not lift it. [He] can continue to do this till the son turns 18, i.e. for another 10 more years.”
2017: The fight continues
She most recently appealed for the travel ban to be lifted in March 2017, citing that her 94-year-old grandmother in Malaysia was very ill at the time, providing medical records as proof to the court. Despite all of this, the appeal was still turned down because her ex-husband disagreed to letting them leave China.
“To date, Cheng has written close to 350 letters to a few other government departments requesting them to look into the peculiar handling of this case. Nothing came out of it,” said the woman’s sister.
Currently, Cheng and her son are still trapped in China, hoping that one day the travel ban will be lifted so that they can escape her dangerous ex-husband.
MCA Wanita Chief Heng Seai Kie stated that she hopes to bring this matter to the top leaders of Malaysia and China.
We hope that bringing awareness to Cheng and her son’s plight will help move the authorities into action, before anything worse happens.
Also read: Viral Video Shows Heart-Stopping Moment Malaysian Kid Got Kidnapped
