Chinese hold American Citizens in a tactic to return fugitive father...I'm conflicted....

via New York Times...

 When Victor and Cynthia Liu landed with their mother on a tropical Chinese island in June to visit an ailing grandfather, they thought they would soon be on a plane back to their East Coast lives — he to start his sophomore year at Georgetown University, and she to work at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company in New York.

Instead, within days, police officers detained their mother, Sandra Han, who, like her children, is an American citizen. They moved her to a secret site, commonly known as a black jail. The children discovered at the airport that they could not leave China, even though the police had said they were not being investigated or charged with a crime, the children told American officials and family associates.

By holding the family hostage, they said, the police are trying to force the siblings’ father to return to China to face criminal charges. The father, Liu Changming, a former executive at a state-owned bank, is accused of being a central player in a $1.4 billion fraud case.

The children say their father severed ties with the family in 2012, but the Chinese authorities have still held them for months under a practice known as an exit ban — a growing tactic that has become the latest flash point in the increasingly rancorous relationship between the United States and China.

Story here. 

This is interesting.

I'm personally conflicted.  I assume the parents became US citizens at some point as did their children.

Which leads me to the point of conflict.

I don't have the experience of being born in one country and choosing to move to another.

For me this is weird.

For me this is a self inflicted wound or more properly said...idiocy on a stick.

Why would you return to China if you know your dad is a fugitive?  Yeah I know your grandfather is ailing but seriously!  It's a freaking communist country and you will be subject to their laws.

The fact that (assuming the Chinese aren't lying) they're probably living off stolen money isn't helping their case with me either.

I don't get it.  China is a bad guy.  That's without a doubt.  But the sun shines on a dogs ass every now and then and although this is a brutal tactic (well honestly quite moderate for the Chinese govt) it does kinda make sense if you've exhausted all other tactics to bring a wrongdoer to justice.

But wait you say!

The children cannot be punished for the sins of the father.

In our culture you're right.  But we're not dealing with our culture.  Plus they're simply being denied exit rights.  Not like they're in a SuperMax prison.

Anyway what's your opinion?