3 Americans released from China after years of imprisonment
Mark Swidan (KRIV-FOX 26 Houston)
Three American citizens imprisoned for years by China have been released and are returning to the United States.
Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung were all designated by the U.S. government as wrongfully detained.
Swidan, a Houston resident, was wrongfully detained in China for more than 10 years, FOX 26 Houston reported.
RELATED: Houston man 'wrongfully detained' in China for more than 10 years, 'I’m just really mad' mom says
Texas Senator Ted Cruz introduced a resolution calling for the release of Swidan in February 2023.
Swidan was facing a death sentence on drug charges while Li and Leung were imprisoned on espionage charges, according to the Associated Press.
"After 12 years, the Swidan family is extremely grateful that Mark is coming home. Katherine and Mark will have more to say in the days ahead but for now we are asking for privacy as the family is reunited. That this is happening during the Thanksgiving holiday gives them and the nation even more to be grateful for," Jason Poblete, Mark Swidan's attorney, said in a statement.
Photo of R. Nicholas Burns, Ambassador of the United States to China (left), Mark Swidan (center), and Roger Carstens, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (right). (Photo courtesy of Jason Poblete, Mark Swidan's attorney)
Li, a Chinese immigrant who started an export business in the U.S., was detained in September 2016 after flying into Shanghai. The Associated Press reported that 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 told the AP the charges were politically motivated.
In 2023, Leung was sentenced to life in prison on spying charges. He was detained in 2021, by the local bureau of China’s counterintelligence agency in the southeastern 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.
After Leung's sentencing, the U.S. recommended that Americans reconsider traveling to China because of arbitrary law enforcement and exit bans and the risk of wrongful detentions.
According to the AP, the release comes two months after China freed David Lin, a Christian pastor from California who had spent nearly 20 years behind bars after being convicted of contract fraud.
The AP reported that a U.S. official said the Biden administration had raised their cases with China in meetings over the past couple of years, including in early November when President Joe Biden spoke to Chinese president Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru.
Politico was first to report the release of the Americans, which it said was part of a prisoner swap with the U.S. The White House did not immediately confirm that any Chinese citizens had been returned home.
Meanwhile, the State Department on Wednesday lowered its travel warning to China to "level two," advising U.S. citizens to "exercise increased caution" from the norm when traveling to the mainland.
According to the AP, the alert was previously at "level three," notifying Americans that they should "reconsider travel" to China in part because of the "risk of wrongful detention" of Americans.