She is America’s undisputed ice queen after skating her way to gold medal glory at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
But Alysa Liu’s refugee father has revealed just how close the 20-year-old sensation came to quitting the sport for good when she was hounded by ruthless Chinese spies.
The figure skater’s ordeal dates back to a brazen 2021 plot to harass and intimidate US-based opponents of Xi Jinping’s communist regime.
Party apparatchiks are said to have drawn up a secret list of enemies that included Alysa’s dissident dad, Arthur Liu, who fled to the West in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
The crony they hired to doorstep Arthur’s California home in October 2021, posing as an official from the US Olympic Committee, seemed an unlikely Chinese spy.
But Arthur sensed something was wrong when Matthew Ziburis, 53 – a burly private bodyguard and former State of Florida correctional officer – demanded copies of their passports.
‘He said something about pre-international travel readiness, but he wasn’t very convincing,’ Arthur, 61, told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview.
‘I’ve been dealing with US Figure Skating for many years, so I knew this wasn’t a legitimate way of going about things. I sent him packing.’
Gold medalist Alysa Liu almost quit skating at 20 after being hounded by ruthless Chinese spies, her refugee father revealed to the Daily Mail
Arthur Liu told the Daily Mail about the family’s 2022 ordeal, when a Chinese spy targeted their family in a brazen attempt to harass and intimidate US-based opponents of Xi Jinping’s regime
It was only when the FBI contacted him a week later that Arthur, a Bay Area attorney and lifelong pro-democracy campaigner, began to piece things together.
The seemingly unlikely spy was Matthew Ziburis, 53 – a private bodyguard and former State of Florida correctional officer – who demanded copies of their passports when he arrived at their family home
Alysa, a prodigious talent who became the youngest ever US figure skating champion at age 13, was preparing for Beijing 2022, her first Olympics.
If she could be persuaded to represent China, it would have been a stunning propaganda coup for Xi’s ‘naturalization project’.
But if Alysa refused and instead voiced dissent from the medal podium it could have meant global humiliation.
‘There was contact, that’s about all I want to say about it,’ said Arthur.
‘I continued to organize protests and demonstrations against the Chinese government for many years after arriving in the US.
‘Given my background, it was impossible for me to allow her to compete on their behalf.’
That refusal, Arthur believes, sealed the family’s ordeal.
Alysa is regarded as a prodigious talent who became the youngest ever US figure skating champion at age 13 Father and daughter attended a press conference at Oakland Ice Center in 2019 when Alysa was 13
Arthur is viewed as a dissident to the Chinese Communist Party – fleeing China for the West in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre
When Ziburis demanded Arthur and Alysa Liu’s passport, Arthur became suspicious because he knew this was not the usual procedure – a concern confirmed a week later when the FBI contacted him
Ziburis flew out to Richmond, California, with instructions to plant hidden cameras and use a GPS tracker to monitor Arthur’s every move, according to a federal indictment.
A colleague spotted him skulking along the corridor of Arthur’s law offices.
But when the FBI rang to warn Arthur that Ziburis was en route to the family home for a second time, he and his daughter were one step ahead.
‘He was driving to our house while we were boarding a plane,’ Arthur recalled.
‘It was a game of cat and mouse. I felt like I was in a movie.’
The pair were headed to US Figure Skating headquarters in Colorado Springs where Arthur arranged for Alysa to live and train until she left for Beijing the following February.
Being wrenched from her friends and four younger siblings left the starlet feeling lonely and miserable, Arthur conceded.
‘Alysa hated it there,’ he said. ‘I sensed that she was very unhappy leading into the Olympic Games.’
In the midst of Arthur’s dealings with the FBI, Arthur and Alysa headed to the US Figure Skating headquarters in Colorado Springs where he arranged for his daughter to live and train until she left for Beijing the following February
Being separated from her friends and four younger siblings left the starlet lonely and miserable, Arthur admitted, adding on to her deep unhappiness and lack of passion for the sport she had been involved in since age five
A month after Alysa and another competitor were approached in the facility’s canteen by an unknown man who invited them to his apartment, she bagged bronze at the World Championships in France
Arthur’s activism meant it was impossible to get a Chinese travel visa to accompany his daughter, but State Department officials promised she would be safe.
Alysa, the youngest athlete named to the US Olympic team, placed sixth in the women’s singles – but an unnerving encounter soured her experience.
‘She was with another competitor in the canteen when a man approached them and invited them to his apartment,’ Arthur said.
‘They of course said no and reported this to the US delegation.
‘There was apparently nothing on the security cameras but if Alysa says someone approached and followed her, I know who I believe.’
A month later Alysa bagged bronze in the World Championships in France, but her father feared she had lost her passion for the sport she took up at age five.
She didn’t even warn him before announcing her retirement via Instagram.
‘It’s been an insane 11 years. A lot of good and a lot of bad but yk that’s just how it is,’ Alysa wrote in April 2022.
Alysa’s lost passion for the sport would culminate in her announcing her retirement at age 16 on Instagram without notifying her father
After leaving the world of ice skating, Alysa enrolled at UCLA to study psychology and wouldn’t touch the ice until her passion was rekindled in January 2024 after a ski trip
She enrolled at UCLA to study psychology, went traveling and hiked the Himalayas – never once going near an ice rink.
‘Alysa never stepped on ice. In fact, she avoided the ice rink at all costs,’ her dad said.
‘I feel like she was suffering from PTSD during that time.’
Alysa’s love for skating was to be rekindled in January 2024, however, when she went skiing – a pursuit deemed too risky while she was competing.
The adrenaline surge left its mark and, on the drive home from Lake Tahoe, she mulled a comeback.
Weeks later she marched into her dad’s Oakland office to inform him that she was back in training.
This time, Alysa would stand on her own two feet. She was in charge.
‘She and her friend went to the ice rink and in her first session she was able to do a double axel. In the second she was able to do a triple flip,’ said Arthur, reeling off some of the toughest jumps in figure skating.
Alysa’s resurgence would pay off when she became the first American woman to win an individual gold skating medal for 24 years at the 2026 Olympics
Alysa not only delivered a flawless performance, but also gained a staggering 4.5 million new followers on Instagram
Alysa’s dedication paid off in glorious style at the Milano Cortina Olympics where last week she became the first American woman to win an individual gold skating medal for 24 years.
She delivered a flawless performance, the best of her career, landing seven triple jumps and drawing a standing ovation from 12,000 ecstatic fans.
‘She had speed, grace, elegance. She was sheer joy on ice,’ Arthur reflected.
The gold medal comeback made Alysa a household name and earned her a staggering 4.5 million new followers on Instagram.
The future is less promising for Ziburis who pleaded guilty to acting as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy to engage in interstate harassment, crimes that could land him 15 years in jail.
Charging documents reveal he was paid $100,000 to spy on multiple Chinese dissidents, including a California artist who created a satirical sculpture of Xi Jinping as a giant Covid-19 virus.
The artwork was mysteriously burnt to the ground just days after it was unveiled to the public in 2021.
Arthur’s run-in with Ziburis – who’ll be sentenced after his alleged co-conspirators go on trial – wasn’t his first brush with communist goons.
Arthur was a student leader at Zhongshan University in Guangzhou and organized protests and hunger strikes in the wake of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. He was then given three days to turn himself in to police, but instead fled to Hong Kong and later to California
After working restaurant jobs, he enrolled at UC Hastings Law School – now the UC Law San Francisco – graduating in the 90s
Over the years, Arthur has protested Chinese human rights abuses and supported political refugees – one man he housed and helped find a job in the 1990s later confessed to being a communist spy
As a student leader at Zhongshan University in Guangzhou, he organized protests and hunger strikes to honor the hundreds, perhaps thousands, killed in the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Arthur was given three days to hand himself in to police but fled to Hong Kong and later to California rather than spend years festering in a prison camp.
He worked as a busboy in a Chinese restaurant, studied law and qualified as an attorney, raising five children, all via surrogate.
Over the years Arthur has continued to protest Chinese human rights violations while offering support to political refugees.
One of those, a man whom he housed and helped find a job in the 1990s, later confessed to being a communist spy.
‘You know, the Chinese government has so many spies working for them in the United States,’ he told the Daily Mail.
‘I’m sure they will try to make friends with me again and attempt all sorts of things.
‘But I don’t care. I have a wonderful life, a wonderful family and a wonderful daughter. I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world.’