In January, Steve Fleischli left his home in Labadie for a business trip to Xiamen, China. Nearly five months later, he is still there, stuck.

Fleischli, until recently the Washington, Mo.-based chief executive of tent-maker NorthPole Ltd., says his passport was confiscated by a Xiamen court after getting stuck in the middle of a dispute between his Chinese suppliers and the global private equity fund that owns NorthPole. This month, he filed a suit in St. Louis County Circuit Court in a bid to return home.

Fleischli's dilemma highlights a risk for Western executives in China, especially when they are on the hook for debts they can't pay. Up close, it's also about a globe-hopping businessman just trying to get home to his wife and 3-year-old daughter.

Fleischli, 37, has been with NorthPole for 11 years, working out of its sales office in Washington and traveling frequently to plants in China and Bangladesh. The company is little-known outside the sporting goods industry but is one of the world's biggest makers of tents, airbeds and those fold-up camping chairs found in backyards nationwide. It's a major supplier to retail giants such as WalMart, Target and Bass Pro Shops.

For more than a decade, it has been majority-owned by Warburg Pincus, a New York-based private equity firm that manages $35 billion in investments in more than 130 companies worldwide. About four years ago, they named Fleischli to be NorthPole's chief executive, a job he held until May. Aside from a statement disputing Fleischli's claims, the company declined to comment for this story.