No matter who wins the presidential election this November, one of the next administration’s most important tasks will be securing the release of Americans wrongfully detained abroad – particularly in communist China.
According to a report out earlier this year from the Foley Foundation, an organization that advocates for the release of U.S. hostages, there are currently 46 American citizens held unjustly in 16 countries, with an average length of imprisonment of five years. 11 of those prisoners are currently detained in China.
Other reports have painted an even more grim picture. The Dui Hua Foundation, which focuses on individuals wrongly detained in China, believes there are more than 200 U.S. citizens at various stages of prosecution in the Chinese legal system who have been wrongfully detained in the communist country. In response to an email I sent to the organization, a spokesperson responded that “the US government has yet to disclose the actual number of Americans subjected to coercive measures, despite repeated calls from media and NGOs.”
A typical case is that of Mark Swidan, a Texas man who was detained from his hotel room in southern China in 2012 and charged with a criminal conspiracy along with 11 other individuals to manufacture and traffic drugs. The Chinese investigators produced no forensic evidence against him, and the co-defendants could not identify him.
However, violating all legal norms, a Chinese court sentenced Swidan to death. He was deprived of his Bible and his rosary was destroyed. The prison Swidan is being held in is known as a “black box,” and he has reportedly been subject to extreme physical and psychological abuse.
Unlike the United States and most Western nations, which believe in an independent judiciary, the Chinese government views judicial independence as a threat to the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. Law Professor Lo Changpu, a former high-ranking CCP official who defected to the West, explained to me that “the Party’s apparatus supervises prosecutors, judges, attorneys… The whole legal system in China is intoxicated with Marxist fumes” so that “Chinese law must assist the Party in achieving its objectives.”
Mark Swidan’s mother, Katherine Swidan, has tirelessly pleaded with the U.S. government to do more to secure her son’s release. In a statement to Congress last month, Ms. Swidan specifically called out the Biden-Harris administration, saying that “the Chinese government has expressed a willingness to resolve my son’s case, presenting proposals that, regrettably, have been met with reluctance or outright rejection by the Biden-Harris administration.”
“The U.S. government must remember that its first duty is to its people, to defend their rights and bring them home,” she continued, adding that she was “distraught” with China but “even more upset” with her government.
Ms. Swidan has reportedly not had contact with her son since a five-minute phone call in 2018, when she said she learned Mark’s health was deteriorating and that prison guards had broken his hand at least five separate times. Mark said he was being kept in a cell with 25 other prisoners that becomes bitterly cold in the winter and insufferably hot in the summer. The prisoners have a hole in the ground for a toilet and are forced to work jobs that expose them to dangerous conditions and toxic chemicals.
The Biden-Harris administration has touted the decline in the number of Americans wrongfully detained abroad since it reached a peak in 2022. But for the friends and families of those still detained, the feeling is that the government is not doing enough to secure the release of their loved ones.
The report released by the Foley Foundation this year revealed that the families of many American hostages feel “the government did not provide honest assessments to help recover their loved ones.” As Ms. Swidan asked, “Why do the well-connected seem to have their cases resolved more quickly while families like mine are forgotten?”
Jason Ian Poblete, Counsel and President of the Global Liberty Alliance, a pressure group that lobbies for U.S. citizens persecuted abroad, recently told Congress that although the rights of American citizens should be at the forefront of policy agenda, they are “often sidelined.” He called for “more aggressive” treatment of Chinese and foreign officials responsible for human rights crimes against Americans, which should include family members who “are often vacationing, conducting business here, or even accessing our healthcare system.”
Poblete proposed that access to the U.S. should be considered a privilege, not a right, since “reciprocity is earned, and not a gift.” Professor Lo agrees, telling me that only pressure on Chinese officials, particularly “on everything related to their wealth, luxury, and privileges in the U.S. and the West,” can help achieve the objective of securing the release of Americans detained in China. “Nothing else will work.”
With tensions continuing to ramp up between the United States and China, the issue of Americans being wrongfully detained there will likely only escalate in the years ahead. The State Department is now advising U.S. citizens to “reconsider” travel to China due to “arbitrary enforcement of local laws” and “risk of wrongful detentions.”
The families of Americans like Mark Swidan have waited years or even decades to secure the release of their loved ones. They deserve a president who will stand up to Beijing’s violations of human rights and basic justice and bring wrongfully detained American citizens home.
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.