New Delhi, Dec. 12 -- Retired Chinese official Li Chuanliang was recuperating from cancer on a Korean resort island when he got an urgent call: Don't return to China, a friend warned. You're now a fugitive.

Days later, a stranger snapped a photo of Li in a cafe. Terrified South Korea would send him back, Li fled, flew to the U.S. on a tourist visa and applied for asylum. But even there - in New York, in California, deep in the Texas desert - the Chinese government continued to hunt him down with the help of surveillance technology.

Li's communications were monitored, his assets seized and his movements followed in police databases. More than 40 friends and relatives - including his pregnant daughter - were identified and detained, even ...