Chinese student's death: Friends claim dad was violent, he says he disciplines just like any other parent

The father of the 19-year-old Chinese student who was discovered dead at the condominium where she lived has rubbished allegations that he was physically abusive towards her.

Li Jiaxuan's body was found below a block at The Lakeshore in Jurong West in the wee hours of the morning on May 23. Police investigations are ongoing. 

In the wake of media reports about her death, accusations by her friends that her father, Li Feng, had been violent towards her have surfaced.

A friend, who also attends Canadian International School, where Jiaxuan was supposed to graduate from on June 1, told China media that Li once hit her with a glass bottle and caused her head to bleed.

Another time, he allegedly grabbed her head and smashed it against a chair.

Frightened to return to China

The friend added that Jiaxuan, who was from Ningbo in Zhejiang province, had sent her a voice message on April 30, saying she was in despair and terrified to return to China.

On the same day, she also said that she missed her mother, who died in 2015. Her father sent her to Singapore the following year.

Friends claimed that Li had a drinking habit and would beat his daughter when he was drunk. 

Another friend said Jiaxuan told her that he had allegedly beaten her when she was back in China in the last two years, and even hit her in a hotel room when he visited Singapore in March this year.

In screenshots of chats between Jiaxuan and her friend, the former spoke about the chair incident, where her father also allegedly hit her with a wooden stick.

The friend added: "We would sometimes notice that she was feeling down, usually after her winter vacation in China."

Friends and classmates later told 8world that Jiaxuan first brought up her problems with her father in 2022, and would confide in them whenever there was an incident.

Hit with a bottle

A photo provided by a friend, surnamed Sun, showed Jiaxuan with a swollen forehead, and bruises on her knees and calves.

Sun said: "There were so many incidents that we lost count. The scar on her lips was from last October, when she was hit with a skincare product bottle."

Jiaxuan also reportedly sent WeChat messages to her friends last December, saying that "each vacation is worse than the last". She also added: "What he just said was really terrifying." 

Li reportedly knew that his daughter told her friends about the alleged incidents.

One of her messages read: "Whichever hand you use more (to chat on the phone), I'll hit that."

Sun said: "Jiaxuan had run off to her grandmother's house before, but returned home to her father after he told her to."

In another message by Jiaxuan when her father came to Singapore in March, she said: "I'm in despair... my father scolded me for 20 minutes."

Did not abuse daughter

Li Feng, who came back to Singapore on Thursday after her daughter's funeral, has refuted the allegations.

He told 8world that he disciplined his daughter like any other parent would, but never physically abused her. 

In another interview with Chinese online publication Hong Xing News on Thursday, Li addressed the accusations.

With regard to the chair incident, he said that Jiaxuan had fallen on the chair during their argument. He added that he had hit her with a stick on her palm, which was just him disciplining his child.

As for the bottle incident, he denied that it happened.

And he had never turned violent in a drunken rage. "In the last two years, I had only met people for meals seven times, and I rarely drank. More than 10 years ago, I had made a fool of myself when I drank."

Li also dispelled claims that Jiaxuan suffered from depression. Her friends said the school had also recommended her for psychological counselling.

"She had a stomach infection. After she was treated by a doctor in China, the doctor in Singapore did not give her any other medication," Li told 8world.

"If she really had depression, she would have been given medication and treatment." 

However, her friends and classmates said she had a eating disorder for the last three years, but her condition improved after she met her boyfriend.

Her boyfriend, Wan Sen (transliteration), who is from the same school, told 8world that he did not sense that she had a eating disorder during the 11 months they dated.

READ ALSO: 19-year-old Chinese student in Singapore falls to death a week before graduation, dad devastated

claudiatan@asiaone.com