On Friday, Xianting Kong told the Supreme Court that, a month before her marriage to Hongtao Liu, the couple agreed to leave China.“The reason we planned to move to Australia was mostly for the lifestyle and environment for our children … we didn’t consider many other factors,” she said.“If my husband had any suggestions or advice on our family matters, he would inform me – if I agreed, then those plans would go ahead.”Richard Ross-Smith, for Ms Kong’s mother-in-law, Junying Yan, asked if the couple had discussed the effect this would have on his client.“Did Mr Liu tell you, either at about the time you were married or any other time before that, he did not intend to continue to make gifts to his mother after you were married?” he asked.“Did he say that, after gifting her two properties and with her pension, she would be ‘sufficiently looked after’?”Ms Kong replied: “He did say that, after we became Australian citizens.”Her answer prompted Ms Yan, who was sitting in the public gallery, to cry.Ms Kong’s husband, Hongtao Liu, died in November 2018 without a will – leaving the fate of his international $50 million business empire in question.Ms Yan has filed lawsuits in Chinese and Australian courts seeking control of the bulk of the estate, including shares in power stations located on the Chinese mainland.She claims her son intended to return his family to China at some point in the future, meaning that country’s law of succession should be followed – granting her the estate.Ms Kong, however, insists the family had made a permanent move to Adelaide and so SA’s inheritance laws should be used to award her and the couple’s children control of the fortune.In her evidence, Ms Kong said the couple first discussed moving to “either Canada, New Zealand or Australia” in 2005, and married in 2008.“We informed (Ms Yan) before we married, and formally informed her after the birth of our second child,” she said.Over the next four years, she said, they prepared for their permanent move.“I was in charge of the house and looking after the children, Hongtao was looking after the company and external matters,” she said.“Usually he would not give me much information about his business, and I wouldn’t bother to ask much.“He did the preparation and research (for the move) … I know he bought property and made arrangements for the children to go to local schools.”Ms Kong said Mr Liu transferred ownership of some of his companies to other people before their move, but after they applied for Australian visas.He did that, she said, because he knew he could “not conduct business in China” upon obtaining Australian citizenship.Asked if the couple has ever discussed returning to China, she replied: “No, that was never talked about.”“Both of us were determined to raise the children in Australia,” she said.The trial, before Justice Tim Stanley, continues.Tiser – Hongtao Liu’s empireOngoing Australia China trade tensions have Aussie import and export businesses on edge, and for good reason.



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