Bao Zhuoxuan was a bundle of nerves and excitement as he and his father prepared to board their flight en route to Australia from Beijing.
It was the beginning of a new adventure in a new country: the 16 year old was due to start Year 10 as an international student at Strathmore Secondary College, in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. 
As they loaded their bags onto the airport security scanner, in the early hours of   July 9, seven or eight men in plain clothes appeared. Without warning, they pounced on father and son and locked their arms behind their backs. They were dragged out, separated, and thrown into two waiting vans. ''I started to scream but one of the men put his hand over my mouth,'' Bao said in a phone interview. ''Don't worry about giving a reason, they didn't even produce any identification before taking us away.''
Around the same time, Bao's mother, prominent human rights lawyer Wang Yu, was at home in her apartment when the electricity and internet went out.
In a series of text messages to a group of fellow lawyers, she described hearing muffled voices outside the door and the sound of someone trying to pick the lock.
''I looked outside through the peephole but it was all dark,'' she texted.
She tried calling her husband and then her son. Neither answered.
Wang and her husband Bao Longjun have not been heard from since. They are among at least 261 rights lawyers, activists and law firm staff who have been detained or questioned by Chinese authorities in recent weeks in a co-ordinated crackdown spanning 19 provinces that has both shocked and outraged international rights groups and foreign governments.
It comes amid a broader suppression of civil society under President Xi Jinping, which has targeted intellectuals, activists, artists, lawyers, journalists and non-governmental groups.
State media have described the crackdown as an operation to ''smash a major criminal gang'' that was ''seriously disturbing social order''.
At least 15 are in detention, said the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, while another six are missing.
In a statement last month, the Australian government said it was concerned by the detentions, and that freedom of expression and peaceful assembly were guaranteed under China's constitution.
''We urge China to release all those detained for peacefully exercising these rights, or for lawfully defending others that have been detained for exercising these rights,'' the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.
The younger Bao was held for two days, unable to make contact with the outside world.
''I was preparing to go to Australia to start my studies,'' he said. ''For something like this to happen, it's like falling to hell from heaven.''