China releases three US citizens after years of diplomacy

WASHINGTON: China has released United States citizens Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung, the White House said on Wednesday (Nov 27), concluding years of diplomacy over Americans that Washington says were wrongfully detained in China.
The Biden administration also upgraded its travel advisory for China, a move long sought by Beijing that US officials have tied to China’s detention of American nationals.
The National Security Council said in a statement the three men’s release meant all Americans it deemed wrongfully detained in China had now been released.
“Soon they will return and be reunited with their families for the first time in many years,” it said.
Kai Li’s son, Harrison Li, said in a statement that his father was expected to land in the US at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, late on Wednesday, and thanked Biden administration officials for working on the release.
“They delivered just in time for the holidays,” he said, referring to Thanksgiving on Thursday.
Li had been detained in China since 2016 on espionage charges he denied.
Texas-based businessman Mark Swidan was imprisoned for 12 years in China on drug-related charges and in 2019 was given a death sentence with reprieve, despite a lack of evidence.
John Leung was sentenced to life in 2023 and accused of being an American spy.
Senior US officials had raised the detainees in talks with Chinese counterparts over the years, but families feared their cases were overshadowed by other considerations in the complex and fraught US-China relationship.
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.
Biden and Xi have worked to lower tensions in recent months by holding phone calls and meetings aimed at identifying areas they can work on together while still managing national security risks.
In September, China freed US pastor David Lin, who had been in jail since 2006 and was also considered wrongfully detained. US officials declined to confirm reports at the time that a Chinese national was released in exchange for Lin.
Biden’s successor, President-elect Donald Trump, has signaled a more hawkish approach, including proposing vast new tariffs on goods from China.
Beijing said on Thursday that three of its nationals “wrongfully imprisoned” in the United States had returned to China, after US officials said they had negotiated the return of three Americans incarcerated there.
Washington said on Wednesday that it had secured the return of the last prisoners in China classified by the State Department as wrongfully detained.
A source close to the matter said the arrangement was part of a swap deal with Beijing for three Chinese nationals in US custody who were not identified.
Beijing’s foreign ministry confirmed on Thursday the return of three nationals from the US, without giving further details.
“Following unremitting efforts by the Chinese government, three Chinese nationals wrongfully imprisoned by the American side have now safely returned to the motherland,” spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a regular press conference in Beijing.
“This shows once again that China will never abandon its compatriots at any time, and that the motherland is always there as a strong backup force for them,” Mao said.
She added that Beijing “consistently opposes the American side carrying out the suppression and persecution of Chinese nationals out of political aims, and will continue as ever to take necessary measures” to uphold their legal interests.
Mao said that the swap had also included the extradition back to China of a “fugitive who had absconded from justice for several years”.
“This shows that nobody can escape from the long arm of the law, and that no place can become a permanent haven for criminals on the run,” she said.
“The Chinese government will continue to develop its abilities to bring people to justice and pursue fugitives for as long as it takes.”
Biden, whose four-year term ends on Jan 20, has secured the release of more than 70 Americans detained overseas, in some cases swapping them for prisoners in the US.
In 2022, China was one of six countries the State Department slapped with a “D” warning to its travel advisory to indicate the risk of US citizens being detained and used as bargaining chips.
US officials said they told Chinese officials that the detention of American citizens had to be addressed before the travel advisory would be changed.
On Wednesday, that warning was removed and the US advice to travelers to mainland China changed from Level 3, “reconsider travel”, to Level 2, “exercise increased caution”, although the advisory still warned that US citizens in China “may be subjected to interrogations and detention without fair and transparent treatment under the law”.