Custody Battle For Anna Mae He - Life in China

Life in China

The Hes hoped to enroll Anna in an international school that teaches in English. Jack He became an associate professor in the Hunan Vocational College of Science and Technology. He was also appointed director of the college's international exchange program.

On July 31, 2008, local Memphis television station WMC-TV published an article stating that Jack He wanted to move back to the U.S. with his family, and that his children were not happy in China. However, in an interview with Chinese newspaper Y Weekend, He said that he did not want to go back to the U.S., that WMC-TV took what he said "out of context," and that it "could not get a good show" from the interview, so it "deliberately made things up." The reporter involved has denied these accusations. In an issued statement, she claimed that Jack He had asked for help returning to the United States "several times."

In the interview, Jack He further elaborated on Anna's upbringing with the Bakers. He said that while he felt the Bakers "subjectively love" Anna, the "actual effect" of her being with the Bakers " not been good." He alleged that the Bakers told Anna that her parents were "illegal aliens who crossed...from...Mexican border and who disappeared since," and that they told a USA Today reporter that Anna was "abandoned by her natural parents" whereas they "saved this abandoned child or else she would be sent back to the horrible place known as China."

In October 2008, local Memphis television Fox 13 reported that friends confirmed the separation of Jack and Casey He, with Casey having sole custody of the children, including Anna Mae. Radio station 600 WREC in Memphis reported that Jack left the family in July after the two argued. Casey said that Jack wanted money from her family, offering her the three children for one hundred thousand dollars. She now lives near her family and said that she and the children are happy; all three of the children are in private schools where both Chinese and English are spoken. Casey does not know where Jack is and does not have his contact information.

A November 29, 2008, Associated Press story indicated that Anna Mae and her siblings attend a boarding school in Chongqing, China, during the week and visit their mother on weekends, when they also receive extra lessons in Chinese, art and piano. Their maternal uncle pays the tuition for the children's boarding school and also owns the two-bedroom apartment where the children live with their mother. Casey He told the reporter that sending the children to boarding school was a difficult decision, but her brother persuaded her it would be too difficult to manage the children's schoolwork and daily schedule if she did not. She visits them at the school three times a week in addition to seeing them on weekends. Anna Mae, who is a year behind in school because of her limited Chinese, told the reporter she doesn't like living at her boarding school and doesn't talk to her teachers or classmates because they can't understand her. She couldn't think of anything she liked about China, but said the best thing about school is going home to her mother. Anna Mae told the reporter she doesn't miss her father. Jack He told the reporter he hopes to reconcile with his wife, but he has filed for divorce and custody of all three of the children. As of November 2008, he hadn't seen Anna Mae or her siblings since July. Anna Mae speaks with her former foster parents, the Bakers, on the telephone once a week and they also send her packages filled with some of her favorite foods. Casey He spoke to the reporter about returning to the United States with the children, but said it would be difficult for her to find work there because of her limited English. She hopes that she might be able to eventually afford to send the children to an international day school in Chongqing.

In February 2010, Anna told an American ABC News reporter that she misses her classmates in Tennessee. She is still attending boarding school during the week with her brother and sister and reported having trouble with a recent test. She said she now considers herself both American and Chinese. In China she tells everyone that her mother is Casey He and doesn't mention Louise Baker because it is too complicated to explain her relationship to the Bakers, whom she still talks to regularly via telephone and over the Internet. Anna said "I would say it's fair and it's not fair" when the reporter asked if it was fair she had to move to China.

In the summer of 2011, Anna and her two siblings went to the US for summer vacation without their parents. They stayed at the Bakers' house. On August 15, 2011, Anna and her siblings returned to China.