After a decade as a surgeon in Australia, Du Zuying attended a meeting held in Beijing in August 2000 by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council. It was chaired by Vice Premier Li Lanqing, and featured 63 other successful Chinese professionals living outside China. Du was so moved by the proceedings that he made up his mind right then to “repay the homeland, return to my country, and begin a great undertaking.”
Now he sits in a Chinese prison cell with a bad heart condition, while the government of the country he came to serve has shown little interest in his plight.