Canada – The Globe and Mail, August 09, 2024
Amid celebrations of a historic prisoner exchange between the United States, Russia and other countries this month, some families of Western detainees in China couldn’t help but feel a twinge of bitterness that the chances of a similar deal for their relatives remain scant.
More than 99 per cent of prosecutions in China end in a guilty verdict, and for years, dozens of foreign detainees have called on their governments to press Beijing for their release, arguing they were denied a fair trial or jailed for political purposes. But they have often struggled to get an audience back home, while China reacts angrily to any perceived criticism of its justice system.
“China cases have not gotten the same attention from our government as the Russia cases,” said Harrison Li, the Washington-based son of Kai Li, who was jailed on espionage charges in 2018, noting recent prisoner swaps between the U.S. and Russia despite hostile bilateral relations show “that it is in fact possible to resolve these kinds of issues” regardless of wider geopolitical concerns.
Kai Li is one of just three Americans who have been officially designated “wrongfully detained” by the U.S., meaning their cases ended up on the desk of Roger Carstens, who has served as special presidential envoy for hostage affairs (SPEHA) since 2020 and has been instrumental in freeing prisoners held by Russia.
Harrison Li said this opened doors in Washington and meant there was a dedicated team working toward his father’s release. But many others have not received the same attention he said, and some have “waited for designation for years.”
David McMahon is one of them. The SPEHA position was created soon after he was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2014 for a crime he insists he did not commit, and as his appeals came to naught, Mr. McMahon soon pinned all his hopes on Washington, particularly after the appointment of Mr. Carstens in 2020 and laudatory media coverage of his negotiating abilities.
Beijing, however, has proven a tougher file than Moscow. While the U.S. played a key role in securing the release of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, there has been little apparent progress when it comes to Kai Li and the two other Americans deemed “wrongfully detained”: alleged drug trafficker Mark Swidan and pastor David Lin.
