Families of Americans detained in China share their pain and urge US to get them home

WASHINGTON (AP) — The families of four Americans detained in China said Wednesday that their loved ones are suffering both physically and mentally, urging the U.S. government to take action to bring them home.

Appearing before the Congressional-Executive Commission of China, the families of Kai Li, Mark Swidan, Dawn Michelle Hunt and Nelson Wells Jr. — all of whom have been detained in China for at least eight years — cast a spotlight on the longstanding issue that has gained new attention with the release this week of American pastor David Lin, who was behind bars for almost 20 years.

More Americans are detained in China than in any other foreign country, according to the commission created by Congress to monitor human rights in the communist country. The panel has vowed to bring to light the harrowing stories of the other Americans detained in China and keep pressure on the Biden administration to act.

“This is American human rights being violated with impunity,” said Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who chairs the commission.

At the hearing, Harrison Li said his father had suffered a stroke and lost a tooth and that he was largely locked in a cell for three years when China imposed draconian restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kai Li is serving 10 years in a Shanghai jail on what rights groups say are trumped-up charges of spying and stealing state secrets.

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“Everyday I wake up I shudder at the thought of him crammed in that tiny cell with anywhere from seven to 11 other people, no climate control, unable to sleep in the summer due to the heat, experiencing the mental and physical anguish,” Harrison Li said.

He told the panel that it is time for his father to come home: “So I ask President Biden, how much longer does he need to suffer?”

Nelson Wells Sr. said his son, jailed in China since 2014 over what the family believes to have been unwitting drug possession, is suffering from “debilitating chronic pain, seizures, malnutrition, internal issues, dental pain, severe depression and thoughts of self-harm.”

He expressed frustration at the lack of progress to bring his son home. “Please help our family by creating a pathway for outright release or prisoner transfer to a home prison,” Wells Sr. said.

Tim Hunt, brother of Dawn Hunt, choked up when he asked the commission to help her. She’s serving life in prison in the southern province of Guangdong after being arrested in 2014 and charged with drug smuggling, which she denies, the family said.

Tim Hunt said his sister was tricked into believing she had won a contest that brought her to Hong Kong. He says she was taken to mainland China, where she was given designer purses before a flight to Australia without knowing illicit drugs were sewn into the linings.

Dawn Hunt has developed ailments but has refused surgeries out of distrust, her brother said, adding that “our citizens are being mistreated, abused — and it’s coordinated.”

While Americans should be held liable for breaking the law in a foreign country, Beijing’s legal practice and human rights records make judicial justice a far reach, said Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat and the commission’s co-chair.

“We know that even one American detained as a political prisoner in China is one too many,” Merkley said.

Rep. Zach Nunn, an Iowa Republican, accused China of engaging in hostage diplomacy by “warehousing American citizens for a time that they want to gain leverage against the United States.”

The Chinese Embassy in Washington said China is ruled by law.

“The judicial authorities will handle the criminal suspects strictly in accordance with the law, treat them equally regardless of their nationality, and protect their legitimate rights and interests,” the embassy said in a statement.

The U.S. State Department advises Americans to reconsider travel to China, citing “the risk of wrongful detentions” as a reason for its second-highest travel alert.

The hearing also showed a video by Katherine Swidan, mother of Mark Swidan, who said her son was suffering. He has been jailed in China for 12 years on a drug charge and, along with Li, is considered wrongfully detained by the State Department.

In a statement, Katherine Swidan urged the U.S. government to act: “I am pleading for my son’s life, his freedom and the chance to bring him home.”

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AP writer Elsie Chen contributed from Washington.