WASHINGTON: China has freed three Americans considered wrongfully detained in a swap with the United States, US officials said on Wednesday, meeting a key goal of outgoing President Joe Biden’s administration.

The three Americans — Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung — were the last prisoners in China classified by the State Department as wrongfully detained, although activists and families have raised the cases of other US citizens.

“Soon they will return and be reunited with their families for the first time in many years,” a State Department spokesperson said on the eve of Thanksgiving, the American holiday associated with family reunions. “Thanks to this administration’s efforts and diplomacy with the PRC, all of the wrongfully detained Americans in the PRC are home,” the spokesperson said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

A source close to the matter said that the three were being freed in a swap with Beijing for three Chinese nationals in US custody who were not identified.

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.

In his early time in detention, Swidan was deprived of sleep and food and lost more than 45 kilograms, according to Dui Hua, a group that supports prisoners in China.

In September, the United States secured the release of another American considered wrongfully detained — David Lin, a pastor who had been jailed since 2006.

US officials later acknowledged that the release was part of a swap for a Chinese national — a quiet approach in sharp contrast to prisoner exchanges with Russia, in which Biden and President Vladimir Putin personally greeted returning citizens at the airport.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2024