Early Sunday morning, I had a long phone call with Yuan Ruijuan, wife of the detained Australian writer and democracy advocate Yang Hengjun. She was in China and due to be interviewed by the ABC at 11 am. At 10.12 am Chinese local time I received a message from her that she had been taken away by seven or eight secret police officers in two cars.

I was stunned, though I should not have been surprised. Several weeks ago, Yuan received a call from the secret police asking for a meeting. She refused on the grounds she had suffered from serious depression.

Yang Hengjun and his wife.

With profound fear, she left her parents’ home in Shanghai and went into hiding while I explored whether she could go into the Australian embassy or a consulate for protection on the grounds she was a permanent resident of Australia and wife of an Australian citizen.

That request was declined. I asked whether she could be escorted by an Australian consul back to Australia or simply to the airport. This request was rejected on the same grounds: consul protection only applies to an Australian citizen. Yuan was left to try her own luck.