Three Americans were freed in a prisoner swap between the US and China

Mark Swidan, Kai Li, and John Leung have come back to the US after a smooth exchange of prisoners.

After the Biden administration worked out a prisoner deal, three Americans who were being held in China were freed.

Someone from the National Security Council (NSC) said in a statement on Wednesday that Mark Swidan, Kai Li, and John Leung are on their way back to the US.

“Soon they will return, and for the first time in many years, they will be with their families again,” the statement said.

It was said to have taken months to plan the swap, which freed at least one Chinese person who was being held in US custody.

An American source who was in on the talks says that President Biden brought up the problem of Americans being wrongfully detained in China directly with President Xi Jinping when the two met earlier this month at the Apec meeting in Peru. During his August trip to China, NSC Advisor Jake Sullivan also asked them to come back.

A spokesperson for the NSC said, “All of the wrongfully detained Americans in the PRC are now home thanks to this Administration’s work and diplomacy with the PRC.”

Politico was the first to report on the swap.

The 48-year-old Mr. Swidan had been in jail since 2012 and was facing the death sentence because he had been found guilty of drug dealing. Swidan disputed the charges, and the State Department said he was being held illegally, which had caused health worries before.

People who are against the government say that Mark Li, 60, has been held in China since September 2016 on false charges of spying.

He is 78 years old and has led a number of pro-Beijing groups in the US. He was caught spying in 2021 and given a life term in jail two years later.

Several US sources told the New York Times that they had talked about freeing 42-year-old Chinese citizen Xu Yanjun, who was found guilty of espionage in the US two years ago and given a 20-year jail term.

The Justice Department said that Xu was the first CIA agent from the Chinese government to be sent to the US to stand trial.

It said in the Bureau of Prisons system that Xu was “not in BOP custody” as of Wednesday morning.

In the last few months of his term, the deal is a political win for Biden.

It comes after the release of David Lin, an American pastor who was jailed in China from 2006 until his release in September. Lin was thought to have been wrongly arrested.

During his four years as president, Biden helped free more than 70 Americans who were being held in Russia, Venezuela, and Iran.

The US also dropped its travel warning level for mainland China to Level 2 on Wednesday, which means you should be even more careful.