My son, Tristan Liu, was abducted by his father five years ago. For five years, I have been fighting to get my son home, to Canada with me and his family. It has been an uphill battle and I need help.

I am a Canadian citizen now living in China to keep tabs on my son to the best of my ability. My son was born in Toronto and his father, my ex-husband, is from China and a Chinese citizen.

In 2014, when my son was abducted by his father, I filed a case with the Ottawa Vulnerable Children's Unit. At the time, I was instructed to contact Chinese law enforcement and use their system to resolve this issue through a divorce case. That is exactly what I did. For five years, I have been fighting an impossible battle for custody and later visitation, but I still see no recourse in sight.  Apparently, in China, abducting a child to gain custody is a perfectly acceptable and rather effective means to gain custody, as well as forcing divorce on the other parent. The importance of having a male heir often overrules sustaining a family unit in that culture.

In addition, there is no direct link in Chinese law between domestic abuse and custody. I was the victim of frequent domestic abuse near the end of my marriage by the hands of my ex-husband. Yet, custody of our son was still granted to his abusive father.

So, I am now living in China, fighting for my son. It is not at all where I saw myself five years ago, but I will continue to fight for my boy and his safe return. Since the battle began, I have won two domestic violence protection orders (in 2016 and 2017), and filed for visitation in 2018 and won. However, I still do not have regular visitation with my son due to the lack of compliance by my ex. I have only seen my son for a total of 3 hrs on 3 separate court-appointed occasions in the past 5 years! Twice was inside a courtroom and once at a hotel room where I was severely beaten again after the visitation ended. Currently, I am being granted by my ex-husband 1 hr per month at that very hotel to visit with my son, but no such visitation has been possible due to him thwarting any and all attempts at confirming these visits. While it is possible to reapply to the execution courts, it is extremely difficult in China to execute these types of visitation visits. It took me the entire year of 2018 to apply and execute a 1 hr visit.

Currently, I am awaiting trial to change custody due to the sheer lack of compliance of my visitation verdict. This is the last resort as I have exhausted every single other legal avenue in China. Many use violence as a last resort, but in the process put their lives as well as the lives of their family members at stake. The stories that are actually publicized paint a harrowing picture of how dangerous parental child abduction can be. But violence just begets more violence, so I never wanted to be part of that vicious cycle.

I have already spent over $100,000 CAD and am willing to continue spending money to see my son live the life he deserves. However, I need help. I am running out of money and resources. That is why I am asking for your help. Please find it in your heart to help me reach my goal so I can keep fighting for my basic right as a mother.