Three Americans arrive in Texas after prisoner exchange with China

Three American citizens who were imprisoned for years in China arrived in the United States on Wednesday night as part of a prisoner exchange between Washington and Beijing.

He exchangewhich the White House announced Wednesday morning, marked a rare diplomatic agreement between the United States and China, as US President Joe Biden’s term comes to an end.

Beijing announced Thursday that the United States has returned four people to China, including at least three Chinese nationals who Beijing said were detained for “political reasons.” The fourth was an individual wanted by Chinese authorities for crimes who had been living in the United States.

The Chinese government did not identify the four people.

The three Americans freed in the exchange — Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung — landed Wednesday night at a military base in San Antonio, Texas.

Biden told reporters Thursday morning that he had spoken to all of them.

“I’m very happy that they are home,” he said.

The three Americans had been designated as unjustly detained. Swidan faced a death sentence on drug charges, and Li and Leung were jailed on espionage charges.

In a separate but related move, the State Department on Wednesday lowered its China travel warning from “level three” to “level two,” and now advises U.S. citizens to “exercise increased caution” when traveling to China.

The State Department previously advised Americans to “reconsider traveling” to China, in part because of the risk of wrongful detention of Americans.

The prisoner swap comes two months after China freed David Lin, a Christian pastor from California who had spent nearly 20 years imprisoned in China after being convicted of contract fraud.

And in August, the United States participated in another historic prisoner exchange.

That exchange, between the United States and Russia, included the release of American journalists Alsu Kurmasheva and Evan Gershkovich, as well as former US Marine Paul Whelan and US permanent resident and Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza.

[Parte de la información de este informe proviene de Associated Press y Reuters]

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