Prevention of Cruelty to Children

Are there no organizations in China dedicated to the welfare of children?  Does society not become involved in protecting children from abuse?  Does it appear to most within Chinese society that a father who insists in subjecting and exposing his young children to very dangerous situations is in fact not abusing his role as their protector?

The Chinese man who has made a name for himself as "Eagle Dad" by the physically and mentally arduous situations he has set his young son to surmount, despite the child's fear and protestations of unwillingness has evidently surpassed even his previously-much-commented-upon decisions. 

Insisting that his interests are solely to ensure that his son learn to surmount difficulties in the interests of preparing him for life, he has placed the child in danger, and caused him to suffer needlessly.  The satisfaction has been his, not the child's. The little boy was a preemie, and his childhood surfeit with severe illness.

All of which his doting father has vowed to amend, making of his son Duoduo, a survivor.  If the child proved capable of surviving his father He Liesheng's variously devised scenarios planned to teach him through a life-experience to endure the harshness that life often visits upon the unfortunate, he would certainly be a survivor.

The four-year-old boy was previously forced to perform pushups in the snow, jog through the winter streets of New York in underwear, cast adrift on a tiny yacht into the great, wide sea.  And the child survived.  That the child was not removed from the care of this gloating parent who should be charged with child-abandonment or failing to provide the necessities of life for a child, is amazing.

A photo taken by He Liesheng shows Duoduo running almost naked through the snow in New York City in February. Source

He Liesheng flew with his children, Duoduo and a slightly older sister, Tiantian, to Tokyo with the intention of all three climbing Mount Fuji.  On reaching the 3,l776 summit the plan was to plant a banner claiming sovereignty for China of the China/Japan disputed Senkaku islands. 

Planning to climb without a guide, he discovered on arrival at the foot of the mountain that the climbing season was over, a month earlier.  Park rangers informed him of severe gale warnings and sudden weather changes.  Undeterred he hopped over the barrier and began the ascent with the two children. 

"Unlike a lot of Chinese mountains, Mount Fuji does not have steps", he later recounted to Chinese media.  The three, father, Duoduo and Tiantian faced the need to scale 70-degree slopes, clearly unprepared for the difficulties involved.  In the thinner atmosphere on reaching heights, breathing and climbing were impaired and the children wept as frost fell upon them.

There were no food shops along the way, despite the father's belief there would be hot drinks and soup available at stations on the way to the summit.  Even the shelters were boarded up for the season.  They had a cup of water and a chocolate bar to share between them.  Sudden rainfall drenched them; he had overlooked packing rain gear.

Duoduo was assailed with altitude sickness.  At 3,400 metres the sad little party was rescued by Japanese park rangers and fed hot noodles.  The Japanese rescuers gave the little boy a pair of gloves, a hat and warm clothing as he, his sister and his brave, brave father descended the mountain, defeated.

Duoduo, the son of China's self-styled 'Eagle Dad', with the banner he unfurled on Mount Fuji. It read: "The Diaoyu islands belong to China! I want to land on the Diaoyu islands!" Source: Supplied