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On June 16, 1979, a plane touched down in Beijing carrying a group of Americans.

This was kind of a big deal at the time.

Just three months earlier, a U.S. embassy had opened in mainland China,

the first since diplomatic relations between the countries had come to a screeching halt in the 1940s.

America and China were trying to become cordial again.

Maybe not besties, but, you know, the kind of acquaintances who can spot each other at the same party without finding some excuse to leave.

A lot was riding on this plane and the Americans on it.

After they landed, the group got their passports stamped, and a Chinese chauffeur drove them to their

hotel. They settled in and got to see the sights nearby. Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City. So few Americans had this

kind of access to the heart of China. They took it all in. But they noticed something felt off.

From the moment we arrived there, we were under such suspicion and surveillance.

That's Bob, one of the Americans on the trip.

After we were there for a week, we're in the limo, our Chinese limo, they had assigned us.

Bob says one of his colleagues in the limo felt that chilling sensation too, that everywhere they went, someone was watching them.

He bleeds over and he says, we have to be careful what we say. And I said, what do you mean? He said, I think this car is bugged. He's whispering, you know, he says, be very careful, and anything important

will be outside when we talk and not in the car or in our rooms.

It was uncomfortable, sure, but not entirely unexpected.

They were Americans, after all, in a country that was still under authoritarian rule and had

a long legacy as a violent police state.

But what made it all especially odd was that these American visitors weren't esteemed diplomats.

They weren't politicians or CIA operatives. They didn't even work for the

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