{"id":19242,"date":"2024-11-27T16:02:04","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T16:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19242"},"modified":"2024-11-27T16:02:04","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T16:02:04","slug":"3-americans-held-for-years-in-china-have-been-released-will-be-reunited-with-families-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19242","title":{"rendered":"3 Americans held for years in China have been released, will be reunited with families: White House"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0The Chinese government has released three Americans with harsh sentences for alleged spying and drug-trafficking \u2014 just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump retakes power.<\/p>\n<p>The release was announced by the outgoing Biden White House and it\u2019s unclear whether it was part of a broader deal with Beijing or merely a diplomatic overture after Trump, 78, on Monday threatened a\u00a0new\u00a010% tariff against China over the country\u2019s fentanyl exports.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Harrison Li holds a photo of his father, Kai Li, as he poses for a photo, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024. <span class=\"credit\">AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>John Leung was arrested in April 2021 and was serving a life sentence for alleged espionage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Swidan, a Texas businessman, was sentenced to\u00a0death\u00a0for dubious drug offenses after his 2012 arrest. <span class=\"credit\">katherine.f.swidan\/Facebook<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Mark Swidan,\u00a0Kai Li and John Leung\u00a0each received significant support among prominent Americans who said their charges were bogus.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Swidan, a Texas businessman, was sentenced to\u00a0death\u00a0for dubious drug offenses after his 2012 arrest and counted among his US backers<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/04\/26\/mel-gibson-calls-for-china-to-release-american-mark-swidan-on-death-row\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">\u00a0actor Mel Gibson<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Li, a solar-cell businessman jailed since 2016, was serving a 10-year sentence on state security charges, and had Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) among his advocates.<\/p>\n<p>Schumer raised Li\u2019s case directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a congressional trip to China last year.<\/p>\n<p>Leung was arrested in April 2021 and was serving a life sentence for alleged espionage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSoon they will return and be reunited with their families for the first time in many years,\u201d the White House said in a statement.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Schumer credited Biden, 82, with securing the mass release. <span class=\"credit\">POOL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Schumer credited Biden, 82, with securing the mass release.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPresident Biden\u2019s personal engagement with President Xi made this joyous day possible,\u201d the New York Democrat said. \u201cThanks to President Biden, all\u00a0wrongfully detained Americans held in the\u00a0People\u2019s Republic of China will soon be\u00a0home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Biden met in-person with Xi this month on the sidelines of the APEC conference in Lima, Peru.<\/p>\n<p>Trump, meanwhile, is vowing a tougher approach to China when he reenters the White House on Jan. 20 \u2014 singling out the issue of fentanyl exports that have killed\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/nvss\/vsrr\/drug-overdose-data.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">nearly 300,000\u00a0<\/a>Americans during Biden\u2019s four-year term, according to preliminary federal estimates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have had many talks with China about the massive amounts of drugs, in particular Fentanyl, being sent into the United States \u2013 But to no avail,\u201d Trump said in a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/posts\/113546215408213585\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Monday statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRepresentatives of China told me that they would institute their maximum penalty, that of death, for any drug dealers caught doing this but, unfortunately, they never followed through, and drugs are pouring into our Country, mostly through Mexico, at levels never seen before. Until such time as they stop, we will be charging China an additional 10% Tariff, above any additional Tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Li, a solar-cell businessman jailed since 2016, was serving a 10-year sentence on state security charges, and had Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) among his advocates. <span class=\"credit\">Li family<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Trump, who was particularly heated in international\u00a0negotiations over jailed\u00a0Americans during his first term,\u00a0also has floated forcing\u00a0China\u00a0to pay $50 trillion in \u201creparations\u201d for mismanaging the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which the FBI believes began with a lab leak in Wuhan.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u00a0last year called for a \u201cglobal summit on reparations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Republicans regularly accuse Biden of being too soft on\u00a0China and claim it\u2019s because\u00a0Chinese\u00a0state-owned companies paid millions to first son Hunter Biden and first brother James Biden during and immediately after Joe Biden\u2019s vice presidency.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Three American citizens imprisoned for years by China have been released, the White House said Wednesday. <span class=\"credit\">AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Joe Biden met with leaders of both major\u00a0Chinese\u00a0business ventures involving his relatives\u00a0\u2014 and in an infamous 2017 email one of Hunter\u2019s associates outlined a 10% cut for the \u201cbig guy,\u201d who was later identified by other business relations of the first son as the former vice president, in a proposed joint venture.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u00a0claimed last year that Biden \u201cwas\u00a0bribed\u00a0and\u00a0now\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0being\u00a0blackmailed\u201d and House Speaker\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/11\/09\/news\/speaker-mike-johnson-to-nyc-dump-sanctuary-label-to-get-migrant-money\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mike Johnson (R-La.) told The Post\u00a0<\/a>that Biden was \u201csoft\u201d on\u00a0China\u00a0and \u201cit probably has something to do with business relationships and may very well involve Hunter and James Biden and some of the deals they made over there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Biden ultimately kept in place\u00a0Trump\u2019s first-term\u00a0tariffs\u00a0on\u00a0China\u00a0and even added some new\u00a0tariffs\u00a0in May as he sought re-election, before dropping out of the campaign two months later.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u00a0in 2018 imposed a 25%\u00a0tariff\u00a0on\u00a0steel\u00a0and 10%\u00a0tariff\u00a0on\u00a0aluminum\u00a0from most countries, including\u00a0China. He also imposed\u00a0tariffs\u00a0between 7.5% and 25% on\u00a0Chinese\u00a0goods comprising $362 billion of annual imports, or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ustr.gov\/countries-regions\/china-mongolia-taiwan\/peoples-republic-china#:~:text=U.S.%20goods%20imports%20from%20China,up%2026%20percent%20from%202012.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">more than half<\/a>\u00a0of the total.<\/p>\n<p>In May, Biden rolled out\u00a0tariffs\u00a0on roughly $18 billion in\u00a0Chinese\u00a0imports including metals such as steel and aluminum and green-energy technologies such as solar panels and electric vehicles, and other goods including semiconductors, construction cranes and medical products.<\/p>\n<p>Over the next two years under those Biden\u00a0tariffs, electric vehicles will face a 100%\u00a0tariff and\u00a0solar panel parts will be slapped with a 50% import levy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<hr style=\"border-top: 2px solid #ccc; margin-top: 20px;\">\n<p><em>Source: <\/em> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/politics.einnews.com\/article\/764271708\/pfm1j2cgrLkgf5GH?ref=rss&amp;ecode=kmfm9fDbRbj4OPCJ\">politics.einnews.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0The Chinese government has released three Americans with harsh sentences for alleged spying and drug-trafficking \u2014 just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump retakes power. The release was announced by the outgoing Biden White House and it\u2019s unclear whether it was part of a broader deal with Beijing or merely a diplomatic overture after Trump, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}