Three American citizens imprisoned for years by China have been released and are returning to the United States, the White House said Wednesday, announcing a rare diplomatic agreement with Beijing in the final months of the Biden administration.
The three are Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung, all of whom had been designated by the U.S. government as wrongfully detained. Swidan had been facing a death sentence on drug charges while Li and Leung were imprisoned on espionage charges.
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“Soon they will return and be reunited with their families for the first time in many years,” the White House said in a statement.
The announcement comes at an uncertain moment in the U.S.-China relationship that endured turbulence over Democratic President Joe Biden’s term. But with the return of Republican Donald Trump to the White House in January, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has signaled his concern that the incoming president’s promises to impose significant tariffs on Chinese goods could hinder ties between the economic powers.
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A U.S. official said the Biden administration had raised the cases of the detained Americans with China in multiple meetings over the past several years, including earlier this month when Biden spoke to Xi on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru.
Politico was first to report the men’s release, which said it was part of a prisoner swap with the U.S. The White House did not immediately confirm that any Chinese citizens had been returned home.
Li, a Chinese immigrant who started an export business in the U.S., was detained in September 2016 after flying into Shanghai. He was placed under surveillance, interrogated without a lawyer and accused of providing state secrets to the FBI. A U.N. working group called his 10-year prison sentence arbitrary and his family said the charges were politically motivated.
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Leung was sentenced last year to life in prison on spying charges. He was detained in 2021, by the local bureau of China’s counterintelligence agency in the southeastern city of Suzhou after China had closed its borders and imposed tight domestic travel restrictions and social controls to fight the spread of COVID-19.
Swidan had been jailed for 12 years on a drug charge and, along with Li and Leung, had considered by the State Department to be wrongfully detained.
