Three Americans who were detained in China have been released in a prisoner swap with Beijing, the Biden administration said on Wednesday. One of the men had been an F.B.I. informant, according to senior U.S. officials.
John Leung, Kai Li and Mark Swidan were heading to the United States on Wednesday after months of diplomatic maneuvering to free them. Mr. Leung and Mr. Li had been held for three years and eight years. Mr. Swidan was held for more than a decade.
“Soon they will return and be reunited with their families for the first time in many years,” said Sean Savett, a National Security Council spokesman. He said no other Americans are “wrongfully detained” in China, a designation that indicates that the U.S. government sees a person as the equivalent of a political hostage or that the charges are fabricated.
In return, the United States released Xu Yanjun, a Chinese intelligence officer serving a 20-year sentence after he was arrested in Brussels in 2018 and extradited to the United States in a dramatic F.B.I. operation, according to two U.S. officials.
On Wednesday, Mr. Xu was listed in the Federal Bureau of Prisons system as “not in B.O.P. custody.”
Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, said in a daily briefing on Thursday that Washington released two other Chinese nationals, and had turned over a “fugitive who had been absconding in the United States for many years.”
The State Department did not immediately respond when asked about the statement from the foreign ministry that others had been sent back to China.
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