On Anna Mae He (The Staunch Denial)

(Photo: yWeekend.com) Revised.

In China, the saga of Anna Mae He (He Mei) was, and still is, big news.

For one, it was a custody battle with international implications, pitting the Hes against an American couple as well as the U.S. justice system as they fought for, and eventually regained, custody of their oldest child, Anna Mae. The family has since returned to China to avoid deportation, which would have damaged Anna's ability to return here when she came of age.

In July, WMC's Brooke Sanders did a story about Jack He expressing regret about returning Anna Mae to China. An excerpt:

"It's a big mistake for me to return to China with my kids," he said by telephone in a recent interview.

Well, this admission has apparently kicked up some controversy in China, which prompted yWeekend (a translation) to send a reporter to interview Jack (Shaoqiang) and set the record straight. That story appeared Thursday. An excerpt:

Over the past couple of days, an Internet post titled has been popular at many renowned mainland Chinese and overseas Internet forums. The post said that there was a report at Memphis television station WMC-TV by reporter Brooke Sanders titled "Anna Mae He: Coming Home?" In the report, He Shaoqiang told the reporter that "It's a big mistake for me to return to China with my kids." He is presently thinking about bringing his family back to Memphis in the United States. ""It means everything to me to return to the United States with my children." These posts included the video clip of the television interview which has He Shaoqiang's voice.

Immediately, netizens made fun of the former image of He Shaoqiang as the "anti-America warrior" because he has just given China a huge slap in the face. Why does He Shaoqiang who spent seven years in a foreign country to get his daughter back want to return there after six months in China? Is he really sorry? If he is sorry, then what is the meaning of the "Anna Mae He case" so named by the Tennessee court? On August 31, the yWeekend reporter interviewed He Shaoqiang, who is presently living in the city of Changsa.

To save face, Jack said Sanders intentionally distorted his interview--a charge that Sanders denies.

But that wasn't an easy sell for Jack to make to a skeptical reporter:

yWeekend: I went on the Internet to watch video in which the American television station interviewed you. I heard what you said. Are you really sorry about taking He Mei and your family back to China?
He Shaoqiang: I must state that at the time, I uttered a total of ten to twenty sentences. They followed each other in a flow. But what was broadcast was taken 'out of context.' They excerpted whatever they needed from what my statements.

yWeekend: Didn't you use English to say one word at a time: "It's a big mistake for me to return to China with my kids"?
He Shaoqiang: On July 23, the American reporter called me up to ask how the children were doing after coming back to China. I told here that before returning to China, we were very happy. Between July 2007 and the time we returned to China, He Mei had been home for six months. She got along very well with the family members. We felt that we were ready and so we came home.

Based upon the situation of the children, it seems that He Mei is not doing as well as her younger siblings. She is attending an ordinary school with sixty children per class. This is not as good as the small classes in Memphis. She does not know how to how speak Chinese and she can only comprehend half of what she hears. So it was hard for her to communicate with her schoolmates and teachers.

But the reporter kept pushing: "If you look at this from the viewpoint of the child, was it right or wrong?" I said that from that viewpoint, it was a mistake to take her back to China so hastily. But I also told her that as a father, I will definitely do everything to make sure that she adapts to her school and life in China. At the time, I answered their question from two perspectives. I did not imagine that she would only use one of them.

yWeekend: Then you went on to say: "It means everything to me to return to the United States with my children"?
He Shaoqiang: Not only did they took just one side of the story, but they excerpted my response. When I said that "it was a big mistake," I was not referring to the return of He Mei to China. I was talking about letting He Mei attend the international school in Chongqing. It was unfair to her younger siblings who have not begun to go to school. The phrase was also not connected to "returning with the children to America." They edited two completely unrelated phrases and put them one after another!

I spoke about "returning to America" only because the reporter kept asking me what I would do if the children are completely unable to adapt in China. I said that it means everything to me that the children can adapt to China. If the children cannot adapt here, I would take the opportunity if it exists to take the family to live in America. This is my everything. My everything is about my children.

I made three points. In the end, everything that parents do is to make sure the children can grow up healthily. If they can travel between the two countries, it would be good for them. I don't want any restrictions.

When I undertook this interview, I was open and sincere. I spoke whatever came to my mind. But in the end, they aired whatever they felt like and they took what I said out of context. They tarnished me.

yWeekend: When WMC-TV reported on your case previously, did they also take things out of context?
He Shaoqiang: When I was still living in America, they were interested mostly in the custody case over He Mei. I should say that it was a lot better than this time. They made objective presentations of both sides. Therefore, I was not psychologically prepared this time.

After this affair, I remembered that when they came to China to follow up this February, they were starting to show their selective standards. But I was not attentive at the time.

And this was only the beginning. The reporter really grilled Jack, who started back-pedalling on his experience in America. He calls us "megalomaniacs" and "psychologically unbalanced." He even acknowledges that he maintains contact with the Bakers--and the reporter wondered if he did that so they would help him return here. Jack was on the ropes. An excerpt:

yWeekend: You say that they are looking for a good show. But given that you maintain a hotline contact with the Bakers, isn't it reasonable for people that you want to get on good terms with them in order to return to America?
He Shaoqiang: I have recently invited the Bakers to come to see the Beijing Olympics as our guest. I even recommended that they come here to teach English in Chinese schools and stay for a few months. This would allow them to understand China. I speak to them once or twice each month via overseas telephone calls.

We maintain this relationship with the Bakers not just after we returned to China. We did so while we were in America. We are different from the Bakers. After He Mei returned to live my our family, we permitted the Bakers to come every week to visit He Mei. When He Mei had her ninth birthday before she returned to China, we invited the Bakers to attend the birthday party.

We did so purely in consideration of the maturation process of He Mei. I do not want the seed of hatred between the two families to grow inside her heart. I want her to see that the two families are amicable with each other. I do this not necessarily because I want to be friends with the Bakers. I am considering the angle of the child. I don't want any hatred between us. After all, they had brought up He Mei for so many years.

yWeekend: Do you feel that the Bakers really love He Mei? In order to gain custody of He Mei, they sold their mansion and fought you for seven years?
He Shaoqiang: I feel that they subjectively love He Mei. They tried everything they could to provide her with good food, good clothes and good education. Subjectively speaking, they were willing. But in terms of actual effect, it may not have been good.

He Mei once told someone that she is Mexican. That is because the Bakers told her that her parents were illegal aliens who crossed over from the Mexican border and who have disappeared since.

Last July, USA TODAY went to interview the Baker family. He Mei was sitting on the lap of Mrs. Baker. The Bakers said, "He Mei was abandoned by her natural parents. We saved this abandoned child or else she would be sent back to the horrible place known as China. Even the USA TODAY reporter thought that this assertion was going too far. This reporter felt that he had to ask me what I thought about what the Bakers said. I said that the child was only six or seven years old at the time, and she is bound to ask where her parents are. But they told her that her parents are bad people who abandoned her. This is a serious blow to the child. I feel that this type of education is wrong. But many American media will tolerate this kind of mistake.

The so-called mansion of the Bakers was purchased through a 30-year mortgage loan which they had not repaid in full yet. At the time, they hired a top local lawyer who charged very high fees (more than two hundred dollars per hour). At the time, they did not have the money and they were forced to sell the house.

Very people are aware of a certain circumstance. When the lawsuit first began, neither party could predict whether the lawsuit would go on for one year or seven years. They could not predict whether this lawsuit would cost them two or three thousand dollars as opposed to one million dollars. Seven years ago, they thought that this lawsuit would last only several months and cost several thousand dollars because we could not afford lawyers' fees.

yWeekend: Ultimately, they persisted and this shows that they were really nice to He Mei?
He Shaoqiang: Don't you feel that the logic is reversed here? I am perplexed that the media usually look at it this way. Just because they spent one million dollars and seven years of time, this proves that they love He Mei?! Actually, they had no idea that they were going to get into this deeper and deeper. In the first year or two, they were on a roll and they kept winning. They thought that the lawsuit would be over very soon. Just because the persisted, they are said to have a lot of love? Does this mean that we didn't love enough?

Great question. In any event, that probably won't help Jack make his case to the Chinese media since Sanders stands by her story. Her response:

Thanks so much for contacting me. Just let me start by saying that as a journalist for over 16 years I make it my job to painfully fair and objective. This is a story that has torn at my heart as I have watched four adults fight to love one child. So I have always taken great steps to fair to all involved.

Let me make it clear, I did not take Jack He's comments out of context. He contacted me because he desperately wanted to get a job in America so his children could return. We talked and emailed for several weeks before he agreed to talk with me about this sensitive issue. He was afraid of the repercussion that he is now receiving. He finally agreed to talk with me if I focused on Anna and how she is unhappy with school and life in ChangSha. Which I believe I did.

As for the video of a happy family, we aired that story in February and showed the He family happily adjusting to their new life in China. The video and comments about happiness not being shown or news worthy must have came from another journalist from another station. We have no such video and I have never made such comments.

Since our most recent story, Anna Mae Coming Home, Mr. He has contacted me several times requesting help to return to the US, even asking me to get the show "Friends" on dvd so that he may use it as a tool to teach English. Mr. He has never indicated to me that I misrepresented him in any way.

The bottom line, I stand by my story and its accuracy.

End of story? Of course, not. I mean, he had to know that interviews spread rapidly on the Internet, right?