Since November 4, Feng Zhenghu has been an unusual fixture at the bustling Narita International Airport outside Tokyo. Feng is a Chinese citizen with a valid Japanese visa. He refuses to pass through immigration checkpoints to enter Japan for a simple reason — he wants to go home.

But the Chinese government has blocked his path since mid-June. Airlines in Japan - including U.S.-based Northwest Airlines - denied him boarding four separate times, citing orders from Chinese authorities. After the last round of tussles, Feng put his foot down and began camping out at Narita.

“I want to wake up the Chinese government’s respect for human rights through my physical suffering and personal humiliation,” explains the Shanghai-based economist turned human rights author and blogger. “But I also want to tell more people that we have to fight for our own rights.”