Chinese National Convicted Of Attempted International Kidnapping

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A federal jury in Alexandria convicted a Chinese woman Friday on charges of international parental kidnapping in a case where her flight to China was forced to return to Dulles Airport.

Wenjing Liu, 32, of Tianjin, China, faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison when sentenced on June 5 by U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton, according to Dana J. Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

According to court records and evidence at trial, on Sept. 4, Liu accompanied her four-year-old son on a United Airlines direct flight to China. Liu and her husband, the child’s father, were separated but had joint legal custody of the child.

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Less than 90 minutes before the flight was scheduled to depart Dulles Airport, Liu sent an email to her estranged husband to advise that she and their son were flying to China that day, according to the U.S. attorney. The father, who had court-ordered visitation every weekend, emailed Liu back and expressed his opposition to the child going to China. The child’s father then traveled to Dulles in hopes of stopping Liu from taking their son onto the plane.

Upon arriving at the airport, the father approached officers with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), told them about his estranged wife’s email, and provided a copy of the court order that provided him with weekend visitation. That court order also prohibited either parent from taking their child out of the United States without first obtaining written and notarized consent from the other parent, the U.S. attorney said.

The MWAA officers contacted United Airlines, who said that Liu and the child were on board Flight 897, and that the plane had already departed Dulles on its way to Beijing, China.

After consulting with MWAA and the FBI and when Flight 897 was in Canadian airspace, United Airlines ordered Flight 897 to return to Dulles, the U.S. attorney said. The plane returned about four hours after it had taken off, and Liu was arrested for attempted international kidnapping as soon as she got off the plane.