(NewsNation) — For more than a decade, American businessman Mark Swidan has been detained in China, and sentenced to death on drug charges despite a lack of evidence.
Earlier this month, the People’s Republic of China’s Jiangmen Intermediate Court upheld the death penalty for Swidan, a move the State Department said it is “disappointed by.”
In a statement, officials said they “will continue to press for his immediate release and return to the United States.”
Swidan isn’t the only American stuck in China — according to Newsweek, more than 200 U.S. citizens at various stages of prosecution remain wrongfully detained in China.
However, the exact number is unclear, said John Kamm, who chairs the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit seeking clemency and better treatment for at-risk detainees, told Newsweek.
Mark Swidan
According to Dui Hua, Swidan, an American citizen originally from Houston, was preparing to leave China after a business trip in November 2012.
But when Chinese police entered Swidan’s hotel room Dongguan Municipality, Guangdong Province, they found drugs on his driver and translator and took them into custody.
No drugs were found on Swidan or in his room, however, but he was blamed by the driver and translator.
Swidan was then taken into custody on suspicion of trafficking and manufacturing methamphetamine, Dui Hua said.
Police, per Dui Hua’s website, did not use a warrant, Swidan was not advised of his rights, and more than eight years later, is still at a detention center in Jiangmen Municipality.
In January 2020, Politico reports Swidan was sentenced to death after a five-and-a-half-year trial. He has refused to confess, even though a confession could have meant a reduced sentence. Politico writes Swidan is appealing his decision.
Kai Li
Newsweek reports that Kai Li, 60, was arrested during a visit to Shanghai in 2016. He was held “incommunicado” for months, per Newsweek, and in 2018, given a 10-year sentence for espionage.
However, Kai Li’s lawyer argued the state secrets his client was accused of handling were freely available online.
“My dad, he is not a complex policy issue. It’s a very clear cut-and-dry issue of an innocent American citizen being used as a pawn by the Chinese government to extract something,” Harrison Li, Kai Li’s son, said, according to Reuters.
According to a website set up for him, Kai Li has suffered from numerous health issues, including shingles and irregular heartbeat, since his incarceration.
David Lin
68-year-old David Lin is an American pastor from Orange County who’s been detained in China since 2006, according to Reuters. He was traveling in China to support local churches since the 1990s, according to Newsweek, until he was placed under house arrest in Beijing in 2006.
Three years later, per Newsweek, Lin was jailed for life for contract fraud.
Alice Lin, 40, told NewsNation that she hasn’t seen her father since her college graduation.
“At the end of 2018, he sent home his Bible. The best analogy I can make is it’s like a man in a desert sending off his only bottle of water. My dad has a very strong faith and is stoic when it comes to himself,” Alice Lin told Newsweek.
Over the years, Alice Lin said her father has lost at least five teeth, likely because of poor nutrition and hygiene conditions.
Reuters contributed to this story.