China releases three US citizens after years of diplomacy

China has released U.S. citizens Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung, the White House said on Wednesday, concluding years of diplomacy over Americans that Washington says were wrongfully detained in China.

The Biden administration also upgraded its travel advisory for China, a move long sought by Beijing that U.S. officials have tied to China’s detention of American nationals.

The National Security Council said in a statement the three men’s release meant all Americans it deemed wrongfully detained in China had now been released.

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

China’s embassy in Washington declined to comment. Beijing says such cases are handled according to law.

Politico, which first reported the release, said a number of Chinese citizens detained in the United States would also be released.

Kai Li’s son, Harrison Li, said in a statement that his father was expected to land in the U.S. at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas late on Wednesday, and thanked Biden administration officials for working on the release.

“They delivered just in time for the holidays,” he said, referring to Thanksgiving on Thursday.

Li had been detained in China since 2016 on espionage charges he denied.

Texas-based businessman Mark Swidan was imprisoned for 12 years in China on drug-related charges and in 2019 was given a death sentence with reprieve, despite a lack of evidence.

John Leung was sentenced to life in 2023 and accused of being an American spy.

Senior U.S. officials had raised the detainees in talks with Chinese counterparts over years, but families feared their cases were overshadowed by other considerations in the complex and fraught U.S.-China relationship.

A U.S. official said President Joe Biden had pressed for the return of the three when he met Chinese President Xi Jinping this month at a regional summit in Peru.

Biden and Xi have worked to lower tensions in recent months by holding phone calls and meetings aimed at identifying areas they can work on together while still managing national security risks.

In September, China freed U.S. pastor David Lin, who had been in jail since 2006 and was also considered wrongfully detained. U.S. officials declined to confirm reports at the time that a Chinese national was released in exchange for Lin.

Biden’s successor, President-elect Donald Trump, has signaled a more hawkish approach, including proposing vast new tariffs on goods from China.

Travel advisory

Biden, whose four-year term ends on Jan. 20, has secured the release of more than 70 Americans detained overseas, in some cases swapping them for prisoners in the United States.

In 2022, China was one of six countries the State Department slapped with a “D” warning to its travel advisory to indicate the risk of U.S. citizens being detained and used as bargaining chips.

U.S. officials said they told Chinese officials that the detention of American citizens had to be addressed before the travel advisory would be changed.

On Wednesday, that warning was removed and the U.S. advice to travelers to mainland China changed from Level 3, “reconsider travel,” to Level 2, “exercise increased caution,” although the advisory still warned that U.S. citizens in China “may be subjected to interrogations and detention without fair and transparent treatment under the law.”