WASHINGTON — Three American residents held for years by China arrived back in the United States late Wednesday evening. Their release, announced earlier by the White House, was the results of a rare diplomatic agreement with Beijing in the final months of the Biden administration.
The Chinese government also announced on Thursday that the United States had returned 4 people to China, including at the least three Chinese nationals it said were being held for “political purposes” and an individual wanted by Beijing for crimes and living in the United States. She didn’t discover the 4.
The three Americans released by Beijing are Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung; all were deemed by the U.S. government to be unlawfully detained by China. Swidan faced a death sentence for drug charges, and Li and Leung were imprisoned on espionage charges.
The plane carrying the three men landed late Wednesday evening at a military base in San Antonio.
On Thursday morning, Biden told reporters that he had talked to everyone and “I’m really glad they’re home.”
The release comes just two months after China freed David Lin, a Christian pastor from California who spent nearly 20 years behind bars after being convicted of contract fraud.
U.S.-China relations have been strained for years attributable to serious disagreements between the world’s two largest economies over trade, human rights, the production of fentanyl precursors, security issues including espionage and hacking, China’s aggressiveness toward Taiwan and its smaller neighbors in the southern China Sea, and Beijing’s support for the Russian military-industrial sector.
The release of Americans deemed wrongfully detained in China has been a top agenda item in every U.S.-China conversation, and Wednesday’s events suggest Beijing is showing a desire to achieve out to the outgoing Democratic administration before Republican President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House. Home in January.
Trump has taken significant actions against China on trade and diplomacy during his first term. He pledged to proceed this policy during his second term, prompting concern amongst many who fear that an all-out trade war would have a big impact on the international economy and will spur potential Chinese military motion against Taiwan.
Despite this, each countries maintain a dialogue that assumes the partial restoration of military-to-military contacts. President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met this month to debate potential improvements.
In a separate but related move, the State Department lowered its China travel advisory to “Level Two” on Wednesday, advising U.S. residents to “exercise increased caution” beyond the norm when traveling to the mainland. Previously, the warning was at level three, telling Americans they need to “reconsider travel” to China, in part due to the “risk of unlawful detention” of Americans.
The recent warning removed this language but retained a warning that the Chinese government “arbitrarily enforces local regulations, including disembarkation bans on U.S. citizens and citizens of other countries, without a fair and transparent process under the law.”
The Biden administration has raised the issue of detained Americans in talks with China at multiple meetings over the past few years, including this month when Biden spoke with Xi during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru.
Politico first reported the men’s release, which it said was a part of a prisoner exchange with the US. The White House didn’t immediately confirm that any Chinese nationals in U.S. custody had returned home.
However, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning announced in Beijing on Thursday that “three Chinese citizens have returned to their homeland safe and sound.”
“China has always firmly opposed the United States’ repression and persecution of Chinese citizens for political purposes, and we will continue to take necessary measures to defend the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens,” she said.
She added that a fourth person, “a fugitive who fled to the US many years ago, has also been repatriated to China.”
The nationality of the fourth person has not been determined. Mao said: “This shows that there will be no safe haven forever for criminals. The Chinese government will continue our efforts to repatriate fugitives and recover criminals and illegal assets until every fugitive is brought to justice.”
Senators from each US political parties praised the release of the Americans. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said he was “overjoyed” – Swidan’s mother lives in Texas – and acknowledged that senior Biden administration officials “worked tirelessly to ensure this achievement.”
Li, a Chinese immigrant who began an export business in the U.S. and lived in New York, was detained in September 2016 after arriving in Shanghai. He was placed under surveillance, interrogated with no lawyer, and accused of providing state secrets to the FBI. A UN working group called the 10-year prison sentence arbitrary, and his family said the charges were politically motivated.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, who said he had been working for years to free Li, welcomed the news.
“Even when it seemed like there was no hope left, we never stopped believing that one day Mr. Li would come home,” Schumer said in a press release.
Leung was sentenced to life in prison last 12 months on espionage charges. He was detained in 2021 by the local office of China’s counterintelligence agency in the southeastern city of Suzhou, after China closed its borders and imposed strict domestic travel restrictions and social controls to combat the spread of Covid-19.
After Leung’s conviction, the United States really useful – without citing specific cases – that Americans reconsider traveling to China due to arbitrary enforcement and travel bans and the risk of illegal detention.
Swidan was sentenced to 12 years in prison on drug charges and, like Li and Leung, was found to have been unlawfully detained by the State Department.
Tucker, Madhani and Lee write for the Associated Press.
