“If it’s not something serious then he should be able to come home,” she said.

And soon after that, Fu said she looks forward to meeting her husband again in person.

“We’re looking at October I will probably be able to see him,” she said.

In the meantime, she will rely on the indirect communication she can now have with the husband she has not seen for more than a year.

In the meeting, which Gu Wenyang, Mo’s assistant, said took place between 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., Yang relayed his hope that Fu would not worry for him.

He also spoke of his two children, said Gu, expressing a hope that they might be able to attend the Olympic Games in Athens next year.

Gu said the meeting between the two men—at which they were introduced for the first time—took place in a clean, bright attorney interview chamber at a Beijing detention center. Separated by a glass partition, Mo and Yang spoke by microphone as a jailor observed and took notes, Gu said.

In addition to talking of his family, Yang agreed to be represented by Mo and wrote his will, said Gu.

Fu said she was thrilled by the new contact, as indirect as it was.

“It’s really amazing, because in similar cases from the past this has never happened,” she said.

Fu was especially excited to hear that Yang had been reading and writing poetry during his imprisonment.

“He has written some poems which I can’t wait to read, because I know he used to write poems about our family, our children, China, his childhood,” she said.

And though she said the family is unable to send Yang letters, photographs or books, she took solace in the fact that they had been allowed to send him clothes.

Fu said she was unsure what she would say to Yang if she could speak to him either directly or through Mo.

“I wanted to tell him that we’re all fine, we miss him a lot,” she said. “But I also want to tell him that if he can cooperate with the Chinese government he should do just anything....I just don’t want him to be too stubborn.”

But Fu said she was unsure if Yang would heed such words of advice should they reach his ears.

“He did go to China without my approval,” she said.

—Staff writer Simon W. Vozick-Levinson can be reached at vozick@fas.harvard.edu.