Three Americans held for years in China released, White House says
27 November 2024, 15:34
Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung will be reunited with their families, the US administration said.
Three American citizens imprisoned for years by China have been released, the White House said.
The three were named as Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung.
“Soon they will return and be reunited with their families for the first time in many years,” the White House said in a statement.
All three had been designated by the US government as wrongfully detained.
Swidan had been facing a death sentence on drug charges, while Li and Leung were imprisoned on espionage charges.
The announcement comes at an uncertain moment in the US-China relationship that endured turbulence over President Joe Biden’s term.
But with the return of Donald Trump to the White House in January, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has signalled his concern that the incoming president’s promises to impose significant tariffs on Chinese goods could hinder ties between the economic powers.
A US official said the Biden administration had raised the cases of the detained Americans with China in multiple meetings over the last several years, including earlier this month when President Biden spoke to Mr Xi on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Peru.
Politico was first to report the men’s release, which said it was part of a prisoner swap with the US. 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 US, 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 UN working group called his 10-year prison sentence arbitrary and his family said the charges were politically motivated.
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 south-eastern 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 been considered by the State Department to be wrongfully detained.
