Victoria Hu just wants her dad, Zhicheng Hu, home in Los Angeles. But for the last three
China: Let Dr. Zhicheng Hu come home to his family in America.
years, the award-winning engineer — a U.S. citizen — has been barred from leaving China. And nobody will tell the Hu family or the U.S. State Department why.
It all started with a bogus trade dispute lodged by a Chinese competitor with strong ties to police and government officials. But after 17 months spent in a Chinese prison, all charges against Zhicheng were dropped because of a lack of evidence. So he was released, but only into “a slightly larger prison,” in the words of a U.S. State Department official.
Victoria and her family have tried for the past three years to get Zhicheng home, but quiet lobbying of Chinese officials hasn’t gotten them anywhere. So Victoria started a petition on Change.org to turn up the volume on her dad’s case, and get him home. Will you sign Victoria’s petition calling on Chinese authorities to let her father, acclaimed Chinese American scientist Zhicheng Hu, leave China and return home to L.A.?
After over 20 years of scientific successes in the U.S., including a long stint at MIT and several awards, Zhicheng went back to China because he wanted to make a difference: His game-changing catalytic converter drastically lowered SUV emissions, and where else needed it more than smog-filled Chinese cities?
But instead of being welcomed back as a Chinese prodigal son, Zhicheng fell victim to local corruption and special interests. And he’s not the only one — an unknown number of other Chinese-born foreign nationals have also been detained in China because of trade disputes, and are unable to go home.
Just a few months ago, Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei was released from detention after over 143,000 people signed a petition on Change.org to the Chinese government calling for his release. If enough of us demand Zhicheng Hu be allowed to go home, we can put a huge spotlight on his case and others’, helping to get them home.
Sign Victoria’s petition on Change.org to get China to allow her father to return home to his family:
Make your voice heard. Sign the petition. Leave a comment below!
For years I’ve followed the plight of North Korean refugees who make a dangerous trek across China and Laos to the Thai border in order to escape their brutal regime. I wonder if Dr Hu would be able to use a similar strategy to escape. He need only show up on Thai soil. Even if he doesn’t have his passport, it really doesn’t matter. The Thais will detain him briefly and then deport him to the USA, which is where he wants to go anyway.
The problem is that I don’t know the state of Dr Hu’s health and there’s a great deal of walking involved with this scenario.