(NewsNation) — As President Joe Biden prepares to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, the families of three wrongfully detained Americans hope talks of their release will be on the table for discussion.
However, they’re not very optimistic.
Mark Swidan, Kai Li and David Lin have been held in China for years, and all of them still have significant time left in their sentences. Li has been imprisoned since 2018 and Lin since 2006.
Swidan, who the State Department said has been wrongfully detained on accusations of drug charges, has been in Chinese prisons for the past decade. Swidan was sentenced to death in 2019. He appealed his sentence, and it was denied back in April.
Since then, his mother, Katherine Swidan, said it’s been a “whirlwind.” She told NewsNation that no one has seen her son in at least three months.
She said she has been concerned about his well-being and health, especially since he has injuries and lost about half of his body weight in prison.
Swidan’s mother made a direct plea to Xi to release the wrongfully detained Americans, accusing Biden of “doing nothing” to help.
“I have heard nothing from Biden. He’s never called. He only cared about people who would give him votes. President Xi, I don’t see anything happening on our side. I’m looking to you and with all due respect, I hope you’re gracious and have mercy and show the world that your country and you can come together with the U.S. and release these men back to their families. Mark needs to come home,” Katherine Swidan said.
Katherine Swidan believes her son and the other wrongfully detained Americans are “pawns for China” and the lack of communication from the White House has caused her to lose faith in the Biden administration’s efforts to bring them home.
The families of those wrongfully detained Americans say Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised them “substantive progress” this summer, but they say they have not seen any progress.