Three Americans arrive in Texas following prisoner swap with China

Three American citizens jailed for years in China arrived in the United States late Wednesday as part of a prisoner swap between Washington and Beijing.

The swap, which the White House announced earlier Wednesday, marked a rare diplomatic agreement between the United States and China as U.S. President Joe Biden’s tenure comes to a close.

Beijing announced Thursday that the United States has returned four people to China, including at least three Chinese citizens whom Beijing said were held for “political purposes.” The fourth was an individual sought by Beijing for crimes who had been living in the United States.

The Chinese government did not identify the four people.

The three Americans released in the swap — 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 has spoken to all of them.
“I’m really happy they are home,” he said.

All three Americans had been designated as wrongfully detained. Swidan was facing a death sentence on drug charges, and Li and Leung were jailed on espionage charges.

In a separate but connected move, the State Department Wednesday lowered its travel warning to China to “level two” from “level three,” now advising American citizens to “exercise increased caution” when traveling to China.

Previously, the State Department advised Americans to “reconsider travel” to China, partially due to the risk of wrongful detention of Americans.

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

And in August, the United States engaged in a separate historic prisoner swap.

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

Some information in this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.