‘Formula for disaster’: Chinese teens jailed for kidnap and torture of fellow ‘parachute kid’

Three high school students from China have been sentenced to jail terms in a California court for their roles in the kidnapping and torture of another Chinese teenager.

The attack captured attention in China and turned a spotlight on the growing number of so-called “parachute kids” from the country who attend high school in Southern California while their well-off parents remain back home in China.

Under a plea deal reached with prosecutors last month, the students will receive prison terms ranging from six to 13 years. All three have been jailed since shortly after the March 2015 incident.

Authorities said Helen Yunyao Zhai, Coco Yuhan Yang and John Xinlei Zhang were part of a group of teens who forced Camellia Yiran Liu to use her hands to wipe cigarette butts and ice cream from the floor of a Rowland Heights ice cream parlour.

Liu, who was 18 at the time, testified that she was then taken to a nearby park, stripped naked, kicked with high-heeled shoes, slapped and burned with cigarettes.

The three defendants, who are all now 19, were charged with torture, kidnapping and assault. Attorneys for Zhai and Yang previously acknowledged that their clients participated in the attack. A lawyer for Zhang argued in court that his client was only a bystander.

Zhai and Zhang also were charged in the beating and burning of a second teenage victim in a separate incident at a Diamond Bar strip mall three days earlier. In juvenile court, two other teenagers admitted to assault in one or both incidents, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Authorities believe that additional teens involved in the incidents have fled the country.