The United States has brokered the release of three Americans it said had been wrongfully detained in China for many years, the White House said in a statement on Wednesday (Nov 27).
The White House national security council named the three as Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung and said all the US citizens it deemed to have been wrongly detained in China were now home. China says such cases are handled according to law.
“Soon they will return and be reunited with their families for the first time in many years,” a State Department spokesperson said on the eve of Thanksgiving, the American holiday associated with family reunions.
“Thanks to this administration’s efforts and diplomacy with the PRC, all of the wrongfully detained Americans in the PRC are home,” the spokesperson said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
A source close to the matter said that the three were being freed in a swap with Beijing for three Chinese nationals in US custody who were not identified.
Swidan was detained in late 2012 on a business trip to China on drug charges. His family and supporters say there was never any evidence he had drugs and that his driver and translator had blamed him.
In his early time in detention, Swidan was deprived of sleep and food and lost more than 45kg, according to Dui Hua, a group that supports prisoners in China.
A US official said President Joe Biden had pressed for the return of the three when he met Chinese President Xi Jinping this month at a regional summit in Peru.
In September, China freed US pastor David Lin, who had been in jail since 2006.
US officials later acknowledged that the release was part of a swap for a Chinese national – a quiet approach in sharp contrast to prisoner exchanges with Russia, in which Biden and President Vladimir Putin personally greeted returning citizens at the airport.
The Biden administration had hoped to secure prisoner releases in its remaining time in office, with Biden raising the cases during a final meeting this month with President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru.
