WASHINGTON- Three American citizens imprisoned for years by China returned to the United States on Wednesday night. His release, announced earlier by the White House, was the result of a rare diplomatic agreement with Beijing in the final months of the Biden administration.
The Chinese government also announced Thursday that the United States had returned four people to China, including at least three Chinese nationals who it said had been held for “political purposes” and one person who had been wanted by Beijing for crimes and had been living in the United States. He did not identify the four.
The three Americans released by Beijing are Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung, all of whom had been designated by the US government as being wrongfully detained by China. Swidan was facing a death sentence on drug charges, while Li and Leung were jailed on espionage charges.
A plane carrying the three men landed Wednesday night at a military base in San Antonio.
Biden told reporters Thursday morning that he had spoken to all of them and “I'm very happy they're home.”
The release comes just two months after China freed David Lin, a California Christian pastor who had spent nearly 20 years behind bars after being convicted of contract fraud.
Relations between the United States and China have been affected for years by major disagreements between the world's two largest economies over trade, human rights, production of fentanyl precursors, security issues including espionage and hacking, China's aggressiveness toward Taiwan and its smaller neighbors in southern China. Be it and Beijing's support for Russia's military-industrial sector.
The release of Americans considered wrongfully detained in China has been a top agenda item in every U.S.-China conversation, and Wednesday's developments suggest Beijing's willingness to engage with the outgoing Democratic administration ahead of the Republican president-elect's return. Donald Trump to the presidency. House in January.
Trump took significant steps against China on trade and diplomacy during his first term. He has pledged to continue those policies in his second term, causing unease among many who fear that an all-out trade war will greatly impact the international economy and could spur possible Chinese military action against Taiwan.
Even so, the two countries have maintained a dialogue that has included a partial reestablishment of military-to-military contacts. President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met this month to discuss possible improvements.
In a separate but related move, the State Department on Wednesday lowered its travel warning for China to “level two,” advising U.S. citizens to “exercise greater caution” than the norm when traveling to the mainland. Previously, the alert had been at level three, telling Americans they should “reconsider traveling” to China in part because of the “risk of wrongful detention” of Americans.
The new alert removes that language, but maintains a warning that the Chinese government “arbitrarily applies local laws, including exit bans on U.S. citizens and citizens of other countries, without a fair and transparent process under the law.”
The Biden administration had raised the cases of detained Americans with China in 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 was the first to report the men's release, which it said was part of a prisoner exchange with the United States. The White House did not immediately confirm that any Chinese citizens in US custody had been returned to their country.
However, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning announced in Beijing on Thursday that “three Chinese citizens have returned safely to their homeland.”
“China always firmly opposes the politically motivated repression and persecution of Chinese citizens by the United States, and we will continue to take necessary measures to defend the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens,” he said.
He added that a fourth person, “a fugitive who escaped to the United States many years ago, has also been repatriated to China.”
The nationality of the fourth person was not identified. 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 possessions until each fugitive is held accountable.”
Senators from both American political parties praised the release of the Americans. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said he was “delighted” (Swidan’s mother lives in Texas) and credited senior officials in the Biden administration for having “worked tirelessly to secure this achievement.”
Li, a Chinese immigrant who started an export business in the United States and lived in New York, was detained in September 2016 after flying to 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 has said the charges were politically motivated.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, who said he had worked for years to try to secure Li's release, welcomed the news.
“Even when it seemed like there was no hope, we never stopped believing that one day Mr. Li would return home,” Schumer said in a statement.
Leung was sentenced last year to life in prison 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 sentencing, the United States recommended (without citing specific cases) that Americans reconsider traveling to China due to arbitrary law enforcement and exit bans and the risk of unjust detention.
Swidan had been imprisoned for 12 years on a drug charge and, along with Li and Leung, was deemed to be unjustly detained by the State Department.
Tucker, Madhani and Lee write for the Associated Press.
