Sixing “Steve” Liu was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers on Nov. 29, 2010. He had been flying back from a speaking engagement at a highly technical nanotechnology conference. Liu’s area of expertise at L-3 Communications was building small-scale measurement systems using MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical system) technology. Liu had said he’d been in China to visit family; he had told a co-worker he was vacationing in Chicago.”]