ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013 AND THEREAFTER - In this Monday, March 11, 2012 photo, Victoria Hu, 20, right, and her brother Richard talk about their father at their house in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. On Thanksgiving weekend in 2008, Victoria, then 16, awaited her workaholic father's return from a business trip to China. Then her mother got word of a delay, though she insisted he'd be home by Christmas. In time, she learned the truth: Her father, a Chinese-American engineer, had been arrested on charges of stealing Chinese state secrets. Even though authorities dropped all charges, he still isn't home because of a bizarre set of legal circumstances that prohibit him from leaving China. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013 AND THEREAFTER - In this Monday, March 11, 2012 photo, Hong Li talks about her husband at their house in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. Hu Zhicheng had been arrested on charges of stealing Chinese state secrets. Even though authorities dropped all charges, he still isn't home because of a bizarre set of legal circumstances that prohibit him from leaving China. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013 AND THEREAFTER - In this Monday, March 11, 2012 photo, Victoria Hu, left, helps her mother, Hong Li, in the kitchen of their house in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013 AND THEREAFTER - In this Monday, March 11, 2012 photo, Victoria Hu studies in the living room of their house in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. Victoria keeps her emotions in check when talking about her father. But then, as a teenager trying to find her way forward, she poured her feelings into letters to him, even an essay she wrote for a college application. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013 AND THEREAFTER - In this Monday, March 11, 2012 photo, Richard Hu works on his computer in his father office at their house in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. In the beginning, neither child said much to friends about their family's situation. Richard, now 17, still hasn't, although he says he is starting to follow his sister's example and open up. He recently granted an interview to his high school's yearbook staff. "It's not the most pleasant thing to talk about," the normally upbeat teenager says dryly. When he sees friends with their dads he says he knows he's missing out on father-son experiences "that would seem pretty important." (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013 AND THEREAFTER - In this Monday, March 11, 2012 photo, Victoria Hu, left, waves at her mother, Hong Li at their house in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. Although it has often left Victoria angry, her family's ordeal has also made her decide that she should live every day of her own life to the fullest. She got accepted to the University of California, Berkeley, where she is a junior majoring in political economy. Because of her father's ordeal, she wants to learn more about the law. When not studying, she's taken up drama, horseback riding and martial arts. She works part-time for a small Internet start-up that produces online comics, and she recently tried skydiving. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013 AND THEREAFTER - In this Monday, March 11, 2012 photo, Hong Li talks about her husband at their house in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. A business rival in China had accused her husband of stealing information and providing it to Li's company. Police were asking questions. Hu called Li in California with a warning: "Don't come back." (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

In this Monday, March 11, 2012 photo, Hong Li works on her computer in the living room of her house in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. At home in California, Victoria, Richard and their mother talk with their father via Skype Internet calls, although they try to limit them to special occasions such as Chinese New Year. It's just too hard for Hu to see his wife and children, when he can't be with them. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013 AND THEREAFTER - In this Jan. 28, 2013 photo, Chinese-born U.S. scientist Hu Zhicheng walks along the waterfront promenade of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China. In Shanghai, he lives life as a free man, able to do anything except depart the country. Six thousand miles away in California, his family remains locked in their own emotional prisons: The wife who was left to raise two children alone. The son, just 13 when this started, who speaks bitterly of missing out on father-son moments. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013 AND THEREAFTER - In this Jan. 28, 2013 photo, Chinese-born U.S. scientist Hu Zhicheng stands at the waterfront promenade along the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China. By 2004 Hu was an internationally recognized expert in the field of emission-limiting catalytic converters for automobiles, and he decided to take that expertise back to China. In a place notorious for its horrific smog, he figured to get in on the ground floor helping create cleaner-running automobiles. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013 AND THEREAFTER - In this Jan. 28, 2013 photo, Chinese-born U.S. scientist Hu Zhicheng stands at the waterfront promenade along the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China. For 17 months he was jailed while police investigated accusations from a business rival. During that time, he and his family say, he was allowed no contact with his wife or children other than the occasional letter. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013 AND THEREAFTER - In this Jan. 28, 2013 photo, Chinese-born U.S. scientist Hu Zhicheng sits at the waterfront promenade along the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China. In November 2008, he returned to his native land for what he thought would be a brief visit. Later that month, the day he was supposed to fly back to his family in California, Hu was arrested as a result of of accusations from a business rival. Even though authorities dropped all charges, he still isn't home because of a bizarre set of legal circumstances that prohibit him from leaving China. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)