Over the past decade, China has placed more and more restrictions on the lives of its citizens — tightening its hold over what people can do, read and say.

When Bei Zhenying’s husband was arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison for “smearing” the country’s political system, she was left to pick up the pieces of his life. She now believes that her husband was the writer behind one of the most mysterious blogs on the Chinese internet, which for 12 years had ridiculed the ruling Communist Party from within the country.

Vivian Wang, a China correspondent for The Times, tells the story of the couple.

Guest: Vivian Wang, a China correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading:

China took Bei Zhenying’s husband. She was left to uncover his secret cause.
China’s search engines have more than 66,000 rules controlling content.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Run to the Word of God, Episode 2