3 Americans are said to be freed from China in prisoner swop
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The US considered David Swidan, Ken Li and John Leung to be wrongfully detained by China.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON - 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 Nov 27.
The US National Security Council named the three as Mr Mark Swidan, Mr Kai Li and Mr John Leung.
“Soon they will return and be reunited with their families for the first time in many years,” a State Department spokesman said on the eve of Thanksgiving, the American holiday associated with family reunions.
“Thanks to this administration’s efforts and diplomacy with (China), all of the wrongfully detained Americans in (China) are home,” he said.
Another US official said President Joe Biden had pressed for the return of the three when he met Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier in November
Mr 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.
Early in his detention, Mr Swidan was deprived of sleep and food and lost more than 45kg, according to Dui Hua, a group that supports prisoners in China.
Years in the making
Politico reported that the deal took years to finalise and that, in return, a number of Chinese citizens detained in the US would also be released.
During the negotiations, multiple US officials said they were in discussions about releasing Xu Yanjun, a Chinese intelligence officer serving prison time in the US.
The terms of the swop were unclear, but Xu was listed in the Bureau of Prisons system as “Not in BOP custody”.
Xu was the first Chinese spy officer indicted and arrested overseas and brought to trial in the US, according to the Justice Department.
China does not typically do prisoner swops, said Mr John Kamm, founder of the Dui Hua Foundation, a human rights group in San Francisco.
“It suggests to me that they not only want to give a parting gift to Joe Biden, but they are signaling to Donald Trump the possibility of making important concessions,” he said.
Both Mr Li and Mr Swidan have been ill, Mr Kamm said.
In September, China freed US pastor David Lin
US officials later acknowledged that the release was part of a swop for a Chinese national – a quiet approach in sharp contrast to prisoner exchanges with Russia, in which Mr Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin personally greeted returning citizens at the airport. REUTERS, NYTIMES
