At 11 p.m. on April 26, 2002, Fu received an anonymous phone call from a man who told her that the Chinese police had arrested her husband and taken him to a hotel.

Fu says he had been in China for a week, travelling through five cities, running and hiding from the authorities, when he went to the airport to buy an airline ticket to go back home.

Yang had been placed on China’s blacklist after he participated in the Tiananmen protest in 1989, and the Chinese government has repeatedly barred him fron entering the country

At midnight on April 27, Yang called Fu from his hotel room. Fu remembers Yang as sounding very tired and she urged him to get sleep during the night.

Fu learned from the anonymous phone call that Chinese authorities had discovered Yang had fake identification and five police officers took him to a hotel room. The officers searched his baggage and then he was kept in the room with two officers guarding him, according to Fu.

The two spoke again at 11 a.m. that morning.

“What should I do?” Fu remembers asking him.

“Call the people on the list I gave you,” she says he told her. “Whatever happens, you take care of the children.”

That was the last time Fu spoke with her husband. She does not know where he is, how the government is treating him or if he will ever come home.

More than 11 months later, Yang has still not been formally charged with any crime.

Fu says she has learned that the Chinese government is investigating Yang for using a false passport—and other undisclosed charges.

Mobilizing Support

After speaking with Yang the first night, Fu jumped into action.

Fu called everyone on the list of 12 names Yang had left behind in case of an emergency.

The list contained the names of a few professors, a thesis adviser and another Chinese dissident, all of whom started to make calls themselves.