Plane carrying Americans wrongfully jailed in China lands on US soil

(NEW YORK) — Three Americans who the State Department said were wrongfully detained in China for years are back on U.S. soil as part of a prisoner swap, a senior U.S. official with knowledge of the deal told ABC News.

The State Department announced that Mark Swidan, of Houston, Texas, Kai Li, of Long Island, New York, and John Leung, a permanent resident of Hong Kong, would soon be “reunited with their families for the first time in many years.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he spoke to Li, Leung and Swidan during their travel back to America.

“I told them how glad I was that they were in good health and that they’ll soon be reunited with their loved ones,” Blinken said on X.

While the State Department didn’t reveal more details about the deal, a senior official told ABC News the agreement swapped three Chinese nationals who were convicted of espionage.

China agreed to lift an exit ban on an additional American who was being prevented from leaving China, according to the official. The Chinese embassy said it did not have any comment about the release.

Katherine Swidan, Mark Swidan’s mother, posted on her Facebook page an image of her son posing in a U.S. flag emboldened sweatshirt with U.S. ambassador to China Nicholas Burns and Roger Carstens the Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs on the plane.

“My son Free at Last,” she said.

Harrison Li, Kai Li’s son, said in a statement posted on X Wednesday that his father and the other hostages were scheduled to land at to Joint Base San Antonio later that night.

“We are thrilled that Kai is on his way home along with [Mark Swidan] and John Leung. Thank you, [President Joe Biden], and everyone that made this day possible at long last. Please keep bringing them home,” he said in his post.

The three Americans were arrested and held on different charges that U.S. officials and humanitarian groups said were arbitrary and unlawful.

Swidan, 49, was in China in 2012 on business looking to purchase supplies for a company in Houston as well as flooring, fixtures and furniture for his own home. He was sentenced to death in April 2019 after Chinese authorities accused him of involvement with a drug manufacturing operation. The United Nations called the detention a “deprivation of liberty.”

Swidan’s mother recorded a video message in 2022, which was played during a Congressional-Executive Committee on China hearing in September, detailing her son’s chilling arrest.

“While I was on the phone with him at his hotel, I heard a lot of commotion, and he said, ‘Hold on, mom.’ And Chinese police got into his apartment. They said, ‘We need to take you in for questioning,’ and the phone hung up,” Swidan’s mother said in the video.

In a grim promise, Swidan told her he would come home “in the box of ashes, or walking off the plane, but I will come home,” Katherin Swidan said.

Li, 62, a Shanghai-born naturalized citizen who immigrated to the U.S. 35 years ago, had an export business that redistributed products from Boeing and a subsidiary. He was detained immediately upon landing in Shanghai in September 2016, according to a family representative.

Li was sentenced to 10 years for allegedly “furnishing five state secrets to the FBI,” but his family said that those “secrets” were merely “routine communications” that Li had that were “necessary to ensure compliance with US export laws.”

In testimony before the China commission in September, Harrison Li told lawmakers that his father suffered a stroke in prison, lost a tooth and was locked in a cell by himself for three years.

“I have now spent a third of my life missing my dad. Every day, I wake up and shudder at the thought of him crammed into a tiny cell with as many as 11 other people and no climate control, experiencing the mental and physical anguish,” he told the commission.

In April 2021, Leung, 78, was arrested by Chinese authorities.

He was charged with spying and sentenced to death in May 2023 after being “found guilty of espionage, sentenced to life imprisonment, deprived of political rights for life, and confiscated personal property of RMB 500,000,” officials said in a statement translated by ABC. News

An official with knowledge of the negotiations told ABC News the Biden administration met with Chinese officials multiple times over the years to facilitate the releases.

The State Department’s announcement that three Americans are coming home from detention in China comes two months after Pastor David Lin was released after nearly 20 years in prison.

Lin’s daughter, Alice, told ABC News that her family could breathe a full sigh of relief now that others were following her father back to the United States. “We’re overjoyed,” she said.

“For us, this is our first Thanksgiving where we don’t have an empty seat at the table,” Lin said.

Biden himself recently pressed for the releases in a meeting with President Xi Jinping in Peru earlier this month on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, according to a U.S. official.

Two of the Chinese nationals who were swapped for the Americans were sentenced in the last few years for espionage, the official said.

Yanjun Xu, 44, was convicted three years ago of conspiring to and attempting to commit economic espionage and theft of trade secrets. Xu, who was the first Chinese intelligence officer to be extradited to the U.S. for trial, used multiple aliases to target specific companies in the United States and abroad that are recognized as leaders in the field of aviation, prosecutors said. He was serving a 20-year sentence.

Ji Chaoqun, 33, was serving an 8-year sentence after he was convicted in 2022 on one count of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government and one count of making a material false statement to the U.S. Army.

Chaoquun provided an intelligence officer with biographical information on certain individuals, including engineers and scientists who worked for the Department of Defense, for recruitment by the Chinese security department, according to prosecutors.

Representatives of Li and Swidan in the U.S. Congress cheered the announcement of their constituents’ returns.

“I’m overjoyed to hear Mark Swidan is finally on his way home to Texas, just in time for Thanksgiving. Mark suffered for 12 long years in a Chinese prison for a crime he clearly did not commit,” Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said, apparently referencing drug charges that led to Swidan’s conviction.

“After nearly a decade of imprisonment by the Chinese government, Kai Li is finally on his way back to American soil and to freedom. Over the years, I have worked closely with Mr. Li’s son, Harrison, to speak directly to the highest levels of the Chinese and U.S. governments to advocate for Mr. Li’s release and safe return to his family in Huntington, New York,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

ABC News’ Luis Martinez, Luke Barr and Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.