The State Department downgraded its travel advisory for mainland China on Wednesday after Beijing released three Americans in a prisoner swap.
The U.S. updated the travel advisory from a level three “reconsider travel” to a level two “exercise increased caution.” The modified advisory still warned of the Chinese government’s “arbitrary enforcement of local laws,” including exit bans. It did remove any mention of wrongful detention for U.S. nationals, however.
The update comes after the White House announced the release of three American citizens — Mark Swidan, Kai Li, and John Leung — in exchange for the freedom of unidentified Chinese nationals that were detained in the U.S. It’s unclear how many Chinese citizens were swapped.
“We are pleased to announce the release of Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung from detention in the People’s Republic of China,” a National Security Council spokesperson said in a statement to the press. “Soon they will return and be reunited with their families for the first time in many years.”
The news marks a diplomatic victory for President Joe Biden and negotiators in the final weeks of the Democratic administration before President-elect Donald Trump takes over in January.
“Thanks to this Administration’s efforts and diplomacy with the PRC, all of the wrongfully detained Americans in the PRC are home,” the spokesperson added.
The exchange “was a factor” in the State Department’s downgrading of the travel advisory for China, an anonymous source told Politico.
The prisoner swap follows the September release of American pastor David Lin in a similar exchange deal. Since 2006, Lin was imprisoned by Chinese authorities after he was convicted of fraud for helping construct a Christian church in Beijing.
The latest three detainees arrived back in the U.S. on Wednesday. Swidan and Li were considered wrongfully detained, while Leung’s freedom came as a welcome surprise to the U.S.
Swidan remained behind bars since 2012 for allegedly manufacturing and trafficking narcotics — charges that the San Francisco-based human-rights nonprofit Dui Hua Foundation said were based entirely on circumstantial evidence. Li was imprisoned since 2016 for allegedly spying for the FBI and stealing five “state secrets” from China. Both were businessmen.
Leung was sentenced to life in prison on espionage charges, with China’s Ministry of State Security alleging he started working for U.S. intelligence agencies in 1989. The State Department nor the United Nations considered him wrongfully detained.
More than 70 Americans have been returned home from countries, including Russia and Iran, in the past four years — a product of the work conducted by the State Department’s Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs.