Amy Chang

Amy Chang is a Canadian wine merchant. Chang has been the subject of numerous press and TV profiles, after her parents were taken into custody by Chinese officials in March 2016.

Chang has described how she was warned that she too might be taken into custody, if she did not immediately leave China.

Her parents weren't immediately charged, and Chang did not learn why they were taken into custody. She eventually learned that they were accused of selling underpriced products. In her appeals to Canadian government officials Chang has tried to clarify that she doesn't think her parents need the usual consular assistance a citizen's government is called upon when they are accused of a crime in another country. Rather, she thinks her parents have been caught up in a trade dispute, where China is criminalizing a commercial dispute.

Omar Alghabra, parliamentary secretary to Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs met with Chang in late May. Freeland described her parent's case as a top priority. The Globe and Mail reported Chang met with both Thomas Mulcair and Andrew Scheer, the leaders of Canada's two leading opposition parties, and they both agreed to encourage Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to intervene with Chinese leaders.

Chang's parents, John Chang and Allison Lu, were born in Taiwan, and immigrated to Canada in 1995. She has spent almost her entire life in Canada. In 2007 her parents became winery owners, owning two wineries in British Columbia and another in Ontario. Chang and her brother had to take over management of the wineries, while working for their parent's release.