Kai Li — Harrison Li’s father — and Mark Swidan — Katherine Swidan’s son — are both Americans who have been imprisoned for years in China, and both have been designated by the US State Department as wrongfully detained.
“It’s got to be the number one thing,” Swidan told CNN.
Harrison Li, whose father has been detained since 2016 and is serving a ten-year prison sentence on espionage charges, told CNN his father is worried about the spread of Covid in his prison amid the surge in China, particularly because he is not vaccinated. Kai Li’s father recently died from complications related to Covid, Harrison Li said.
“How many more people is my dad not going to see again? Or God forbid, is my dad going to come home in a box?” he asked. “I just don’t know at this point and given the conditions and the situation in China, it’s actually quite scary.”
“Our government needs to hear that and act urgently before it’s too late,” Harrison Li told CNN.
Harrison Li said he and the other families have “learned to keep our expectations as low as possible because not to do that will inevitably lead to disappointment,” he said. But they at least want Blinken to raise the names of their family members and push for their release.
“The US government needs to be prepared to make a fair and reasonable offer and negotiate for the release of these Americans being wrongfully held just like they have with the Americans being held in other countries,” Harrison Li said.
A US senior administration official told CNN that the cases of the wrongful detainees — including Mark Swidan, Kai Li, and David Lin — are front and center as Blinken prepares for his trip to Beijing.
The administration knows that the Chinese are likely looking to “extract a price” from the US on the matter, the official said, adding that the…
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