> In an appeal to authorities, Fang Xie, 51, wrote that the police have told her that she is “innocent” but that she cannot leave until her husband, a former bookseller who left China after his store was shut down for political reasons, gives himself up.

The government using family as leverage against those who left China is nothing new, that's why dissidents are afraid of them even when they live overseas. The question is why did the wife go back to China even though this is common practice?