Still, it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try. Some of them might have heard of her or the activist group.

The first two or three phone calls did not yield any result, which he expected. The next one on the calling list was Mr Gu, the chairman of the New World Group, who picked up the phone at the first ring.

‘What a coincidence! I was thinking of calling you too, my dear Chief Inspector Chen.’

‘What’s up, Mr Gu?’

‘I’m just leaving the American Consulate with my wife and daughter—’

‘Are you emigrating, too?’

‘Not me, but my family. I’m accompanying them for the visa interview, but there’s still a long line waiting at this moment. I don’t think we’ll have any luck today. By the way, you know someone in the Consulate, don’t you?’

‘Well, the Culture Consul has invited me to some literature events at the Consulate. Because of my translation of the American poems, I think. But what do you want me to do for you – to help reduce the line, so to speak, through my connection?’

‘Yes, if that’s possible, Chief Inspector Chen.’

‘I may be able to have a try, but I wonder whether the American would give me the Chinese face, if you know what I mean. Theirs is not exactly a culture of connections.’

‘Connections work everywhere in the world. East or West. We’re now living in the global age.’

‘But you’re so successful in your business, with the New World, and with all other real estate properties in China, Mr Gu. Why do you want your family to leave in a hurry?’

‘Successful I may be here today, but who can tell what will happen tomorrow? The Party policies change every year. Last year we were encouraged to invest out of China, but this year, with the slowing economy, we’re accused of moving our assets abroad. The Party is capable of changing the law and taking things back from you any time it pleases.’

‘But you don’t have to worry about it right now, Mr Gu.’

‘But I have to worry for my family when something is happening in front of my eyes right here. You have heard of the air quality monitor at the American Embassy, haven’t you? What an irony! Of late, it has surely become one of the main reasons why so many Chinese people are anxious to apply for American visas.’

‘Come on, Mr Gu. You don’t have to go there to take a look at the monitor …’ He did not finish the sentence as he recalled the Weibo post he had read the day before. ‘Yes, I now remember something about the American air quality monitor incident. What a shame! I did not follow it too closely.’

‘You were just too busy with one high-priority investigation after another. But back to the monitor: however the government spokesman tried to deny the fact of China’s air pollution as recorded in it,’ Mr Gu went on emphatically, as if in an earnest attempt to defend the emigration decision for his family, ‘information available in the global age eventually compelled the Beijing authorities to include the PM 2.5 in the air quality index in recognition of the problem.’