LI WANG had waited eight years for this moment and, when her son Wang Jianping walked through the arrivals gate at Canberra airport yesterday morning, the emotion was too much for her.
The 77-year-old burst into tears and flung herself at her son, crying: "At last I see my son!", before fainting and collapsing at his feet.
Mr Wang landed back on Australian soil yesterday after his unexpected release from the Beijing jail where has been held for the last eight years on espionage charges.
The 55-year-old looked tired but healthy when he arrived to be greeted by his mother and his lawyer. He declined to speak to the media.
Mr Wang was freed on November 7, but bureaucratic delays meant he could not leave China for a fortnight.
A former Chinese foreign affairs official, he was first sentenced to 10 years in 1983 over passing state secrets to an Australian embassy diplomat.
He escaped from jail and fled to Hong Kong in 1986. He moved to Australia and was granted citizenship in 1989.
Believing it was safe, he travelled to China eight times on business before being arrested and jailed again in 1995. He was not due for release before late-2005.
His lawyer Chanaka Bandarage said Mr Wang's first years in jail were spent in solitary confinement.
"He had to sleep on a concrete floor during the very harsh Beijing winter, Mr Bandarage said.
"He was denied newspapers or listening to the radio and he didn't get any fresh food."
During a tireless campaign for her son's release, Mrs Li - a cancer survivor - once staged a two-day hunger strike outside Parliament House to pressure the Government to push his case.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer raised the case again with his Chinese counterpart during last month's visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Mr Bandarage said the Government could have done more, including arranging regular consular visits to him in jail.
"Not a single Australian diplomat was able to visit Mr Wang in jail for 8 1/2 years and that's not good enough," he said.
This report appears on news.com.au.
