A B.C. court has ruled it doesn't have jurisdiction to order a child born in Burnaby to be returned to Canada from China – but her mother has been awarded more than $1.2 million in a divorce settlement.
Bing Li applied for a divorce from Jing Xu, her partner of about five years, in 2020 and has made attempts to have her daughter brought back from China to live with her now that Li is done her post-secondary education, according to a B.C. Supreme Court ruling this month.
Xu, who lives in China, opposed the move, the ruling said.
Undisclosed income
Xu also opposed dividing up the proceeds from the sale of their old apartment on Arcola Street in Burnaby and the equity in their former home in Richmond, now worth $2.9 million.
Xu said the funds to buy both homes had been provided by his parents and should be excluded from the division of family property.
He argued he was the owner of the Richmond residence in name only because his parents had provided all the funds to buy it and maintain it on their behalf so they could move to Canada and live in it.
But B.C. Supreme Court Justice Andrew Mayer ruled Xu had failed to prove those claims.
Mayer also noted Xu had failed to provide banking records and corporate records to support his declared income of $28,001 in 2020, $25,353 in 2021 and $22,359 in 2022.
"This was substantially less than his earnings in previous years when he was working full time, before he began to pursue business opportunities in Asia," Mayer said. "For example, in 2017 he earned $99,996, not including rental income."
Under cross-examination at a civil trial, Xu had said he wasn't able to provide corporate records from a cryptocurrency company he helped found in June 2021 (Unite), because only his "supervisor" could do so.
"I find this assertion difficult to believe, given Mr. Xu's testimony that he is one of the founders of Unite," Mayer said.
Xu, an SFU alumnus who also goes by Matthew Xu, is vice-president of engineering at Unite, according to a LinkedIn profile.
Mayer ultimately ruled a yearly income of $105,000 should be "imputed" to Xu for 2020 to 2022 for the purposes of determining spousal support.
He awarded Li two years and five months of retroactive support totalling $16,472.
He also ordered Xu to pay Li $1,204,653.55 plus interest for the proceeds from the sale of the Burnaby apartment and the equity in the Richmond residence.
Daughter not 'habitually resident' in B.C.
As for the return of the former couple's daughter to Canada, Mayer said the B.C. court didn't have the jurisdiction to make "any parenting orders" related to her because she is not "habitually resident" in B.C.
Mayer noted she has spent about 22 per cent of her life in Canada and 78 per cent of her life in China in the care of her paternal grandparents while Xu worked and Li pursued English studies and a marketing diploma in Canada.
"Given that (the girl) was three-and-a-half years old when she began living in China and in consideration of the extent of her family engagement, participation in school and extra-curricular activities, it is likely that in December 2020 she considered the residence she shared with her paternal grandparents as home," Mayer said.
No one claimed the girl had been wrongfully removed from B.C., according to the ruling, but Li alleged she was "wrongfully retained" in China.
Mayer, however, concluded the girl had already been "habitually resident" in China before Li applied for the divorce, meaning the B.C. court didn't have jurisdiction.
Mayer also noted Li had no concerns about the care her daughter received from her grandparents.
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