Washington D.C. – Politico, Sept. 18, 2025
Supporters of two U.S. citizens jailed in China are pressing the White House to put their release on the agenda of the upcoming Trump-Xi summit.
A pressure campaign led by a bipartisan pair of lawmakers and a former U.S. ambassador to Beijing that seeks the release of two U.S. citizens from prison in China appears to be getting some traction with the Trump administration.
The two detainees — Nelson Wells Jr. of New Orleans and Dawn Michelle Hunt of Chicago — are serving multi-year sentences for alleged drug trafficking.
Their backers have been working government contacts in Washington and Beijing for more than a year by urging officials through meetings and letters to push for Wells’ and Hunt’s release. In recent months, they’ve received some positive signals from the Trump administration. On May 16, the State Department submitted a formal request to China for the two Americans’ humanitarian release on health grounds, according to lawmakers and family members of Hunt and Wells who received official notification of that initiative. Such a request — which has not been previously reported — is rare.
Now they’re pushing the idea that releasing Wells and Hunt could provide the administration with a win in discussions between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the next of which is scheduled for Friday.
The Trump administration’s recent successful negotiation to free Wells Fargo executive Mao Chenyue held in China under an exit ban has boosted hopes among the two prisoners’ supporters that Trump may raise State’s release request for Hunt and Wells in the president’s call with Xi on Friday.
