Three American families who have suffered because their loved ones have been imprisoned by China are going to have the happiest Thanksgiving. The White House announced the release of these prisoners, one of them who has been imprisoned for decades.
Three imprisoned Americans have been released after years of detention in China, the White House said Wednesday.
Mark Swidan, Kai Li, and John Leung have been released, a spokesperson for the National Security Council said, and they will soon “return and be reunited with their families for the first time in many years.”
Swidan, a 48-year-old Texas businessman, was accused of narcotics trafficking and imprisoned in 2012. This occurred during the Obama administration, and Swidan was placed on death row. Because of the length of imprisonment, his family feared that he might take his own life.
Li, 60, was detained in 2016, the last year of Obama’s second term. The executive director of Dui Hua Foundation, a human rights group that has been advocating for Li and other prisoners in China, said Li had suffered a stroke while imprisoned.
Seventy-eight-year-old Leung was arrested in 2021 and accused of espionage. The arrest occurred under Biden’s administration. Leung has been imprisoned since May of 2023.
President Joe Biden, and his Secretary of State Anthony Binken are taking a victory lap over these releases.
The Biden administration has repeatedly raised the issue of wrongfully detained Americans with Chinese officials. President Biden spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the issue on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima, Peru earlier in November.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke to foreign minister Wang Yi about the release of wrongfully detained Americans during multiple meetings in recent months.
“Thanks to this Administration’s efforts and diplomacy with the PRC, all of the wrongfully detained Americans in the PRC are home,” the National Security Council spokesperson said.
Credit where credit is due, but don’t think for a minute this had nothing to do with the election of Donald Trump. Qatar told Hamas leaders they needed to get out of dodge, and Israel and Lebanon have negotiated a ceasefire. And even Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who at first saber-rattled over Trump’s threat of tariffs, has taken a step back and agreed to make efforts to block the migrant caravans traversing toward the U.S. Southern Border.
BREAKING: Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum just announced that she is stopping the migrant caravans from arriving at the U.S. southern border after President Trump’s tariff threat. Nothing can stop what’s coming! Only DJT can change the world even before the inauguration!
“I have the vision that there will be an agreement with the US.”
The fact that there will be a new sheriff in town come January 20, 2025, is having a positive effect on how America is perceived on the world stage, and Trump has made his foreign policy clear: peace through strength, not through appeasement. Biden is doing his best to clean house in this area as this was supposed to be the place of his so-called expertise, and it has not gone well. So this is part of the cleanup of the mess that he (and his former boss) have made and an attempt to burnish whatever legacy he might have left. China will be facing an actual adversary in Trump, so no doubt they are making concessions on this for that reason.
