'You disappeared?': Chinese woman fights for husband, family

The man on the phone said her husband had been picked up on suspicion of making illegal recordings and taking illegal photographs.

Deng, 36, had entered the swelling ranks of relatives swept up in Beijing's crackdown on human rights lawyers and labor activists.

Beyond financial suffering, the Chinese government wields great power over the lives of its citizens, which it can use to make things better — or infinitely worse — for those left behind.

Wives, husbands, children and grandparents look on as their lives are systematically dismantled until all that remains are the bones of fear:

Standing at the playground, watching children try to catch goldfish, she felt like she might fall down.

Deng met her husband in 2006 on an online chat group for people from their county, Nanzhang.

A petite woman with a quick, wide smile, Deng liked Hua because he made her laugh.

Deng began working in factories after high school, helping to churn out clothes, toys and electronics across Guangdong province, the heartland of China's manufacturing boom.

For Ivanka Trump and other brands, the company has pumped out millions of pairs of shoes a year from factories in China and Ethiopia.

When he tried to travel to Hong Kong, he was blocked and taken out to lunch by the police, who warned him to stop the investigation.

China Labor Watch, which has been exposing labor abuses for 17 years, says authorities had never made such a move before.

A housewife who had stopped working to raise her children, Deng had only 400 yuan ($59) in spending money.

Three days after the first phone call, police began searching for Deng.

A third examined her phone, scrolling through her exchanges with foreign journalists.

[...] I don't understand, but it was just terrifying.

[...] she knew for sure what had happened to Hua.

[...] her husband and his two colleagues were being held on allegations of using secret recording devices to disrupt Huajian's business.

Eight days after Hua's disappearance, Deng arrived in Ganzhou, a relatively poor Chinese city better known for oranges than factories.

The shoe factory where the labor violations are alleged to have occurred sits in a growing complex of Huajian buildings, all painted the same pale blue, including rows of Huajian apartment towers, a Huajian innovation park, a Huajian school and a Huajian swimming pool.

Deng installed her son and sister-in-law in a small hotel room with cheery yellow walls.

Two hours later, she stumbled out in her high wedge sandals, carrying three pairs of slippers, six pairs of shorts, six T-shirts, three towels and nine pairs of underwear.

Chinese state-run media began publishing photos of evidence collected against Hua and his colleagues, claiming they had all confessed.

Police from her hometown, Deng learned, had visited Hua in jail, urging him to write a letter telling his wife to stop talking with the foreign media.

A 10-minute taxi ride later, Deng hoisted Bo Bo to her hip and stepped through a metal gate into the cool of the train station.

[...] again, there was her husband, who she believed had done nothing wrong and was at that very moment in jail, eating bad food and sleeping by a plastic bucket used as a toilet by 20 men who had been ordered not to speak to him.