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After diplomatic agreement, three Americans previously imprisoned in China on their way back home


The detained Americans have spent years in a Chinese jail. The White House did not confirm if any Chinese citizens were released in exchange.

Three Americans who have been imprisoned in China for years are now returning to the United States following a diplomatic agreement between Washington and Beijing.

The three individuals are Mark Swidan, Kai Li, and John Leung, who are businessmen that the United States claims China wrongfully detained. The White House did not mention whether any Chinese citizens in U.S. custody were part of the exchange agreement.

“Soon they will return and be reunited with their families for the first time in many years,” a National Security Council spokesperson told The Epoch Times. The spokesperson noted that with their release, “all of the wrongfully detained Americans in the PRC are home.”

This announcement comes after months of negotiations between the Biden administration and China regarding this agreement.

Furthermore, this development follows the release in September of Pastor David Lin, who was arrested in China during a missionary trip in 2006 and later received a life sentence. A Chinese national serving a nine-month sentence for cyberstalking and threatening a pro-democracy fellow student was released early from a Pennsylvania prison and returned to China a day after Lin’s release.

Swidan has been in a Chinese jail for over a decade on drug-related charges, with a death sentence handed down by a Chinese court in 2019.

Li, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was convicted of espionage in a brief secret trial and given a 10-year sentence in Shanghai. His son, Harrison, a Stanford student pursuing a doctorate in statistics, mentioned that his father had a stroke and lost a tooth during his time in captivity.

“Every day I wake up, I shudder at the thought of him crammed in that tiny cell with anywhere from seven to 11 other people,” he said in a congressional hearing in September that shed light on the detention of Americans in China.
Texas resident Katherine Swidan holds a picture of her son Mark Swidan, who has been held in China for a decade. (Courtesy of the Swidan family)

Texas resident Katherine Swidan holds a picture of her son Mark Swidan, who has been held in China for a decade. Courtesy of the Swidan family

Hong Kong-born American Leung, who is now 79, publicly supported pro-Beijing narratives. As a prominent Chinese community leader in Texas, he headed groups that advocated for Chinese influence in the U.S. and backed the regime’s position on Taiwan and Hong Kong. Chinese state media praised him as “patriotic” and highlighted his numerous meetings with Chinese leaders during their U.S. visits, labeling him an “outstanding Chinese representative.”

In 2023, a Chinese court in Suzhou, Shanghai, sentenced him to life in May 2023 on espionage charges without specifying his alleged activities.



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