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When President Donald Trump sits down with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week, trade will be the subject at hand. But it is also an opportunity for something else: a chance to secure the release of US citizens detained by the People’s Republic. More Americans are thought to be imprisoned in China, some 200 in total, than in any other country, according to the Foley Foundation, which advocates for American hostages and those wrongfully detained overseas. Most are believed to be ethnically Chinese Americans who have been ensnared by Beijing’s strict security apparatus and detained for posing a threat to China’s “national security.” A smaller number are jailed for breaking local laws, sometimes unwittingly. A campaign to free two Americans jailed for more than a decade after falling victim to scams has gathered steam following months of advocacy, reaching high into the Trump administration. In May, the State Department issued a request for the release of Dawn Michelle Hunt and Nelson Wells Jr. on humanitarian grounds. Last month, a bipartisan bill named for the pair was put forward in the House to expand diplomatic advocacy on behalf of Americans held in China. And in a letter sent last week to the White House, Republican lawmakers urged Trump to raise their cases and those of others as part of trade talks with Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. The last-minute lobbying effort comes amid what officials, campaigners and the families of Hunt and Wells say is the best opportunity to secure their release — before it’s too late. Both detainees are ill. Though they have access to some health care, their families say they will not survive much longer in prison. Tim Hunt saw his sister Dawn Michelle last summer for the first time in a decade from behind the glass partition of a visiting booth in a Chinese prison, under the watchful eye of minders who sat not 2 yards away. Her hair was so thin, so gray, he recalled. “I’m oldest of three,” he said, so it was like he had helped raise her. “So I know every facial expression” — the pain, the anger, the change etched into her features. “I told her before I left — I’m like, ‘This is not your existence. I will get you out of here,’” he told CNN. Trump has often claimed that he is uniquely capable of striking deals no one can, and that releasing American from foreign jails is a top priority. In recent weeks, the administration has touted the return of a Chinese American Wells Fargo executive and called for the release of a prominent Christian leader whose children are American citizens. Advocates say that winning the releases of Hunt and Wells would not only send a message that Trump cares about the issue of detentions abroad, but could also set a wider precedent for securing the release of other Americans considered unjustly held in China. “We’re not rich, we’re not superstars, we’re not politically connected; we’re just regular people,” Wells’ father, Nelson Wells Sr., told CNN. “If President Trump would stand up for regular people, this would make a statement to the United States of America that he cares.” Besides Hunt and Wells, eight other cases, including those of detained Chinese and Uyghur Americans, are raised in the letter to Trump. “This is something the president and the secretary of state, they should be leading off with this every time they talk to Xi Jinping,” said Republican Rep. Chris Smith, one of the letter’s co-authors. “So [that’s] another reason why we need this… [so] Xi Jinping and his hierarchy there see that the Congress and the president are very serious about letting Americans go.” Families in the dark Hunt has been imprisoned in China for 11 years after falling victim to a drug-trafficking scam in 2014. She thought she had won a trip to Australia after entering an online contest in 2014, and as part of her “prize,” her flight had layovers in Hong Kong and China, where she was treated to a hotel stay and given luxury handbags. The bags turned out to be lined with methamphetamine, discovered when she attempted to clear customs for the next leg of her flight. Like Hunt, Wells Jr. said he was also duped in 2014 into transporting gifts that turned out to be cover for drugs. When Americans are detained abroad, their case is typically first handled by the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs and the embassy. If the arrest is believed to be unjust, they may be declared “wrongfully detained.” The designation, defined under a US law called the Levinson Act and conferred by the secretary of state, allows a government office, the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, to handle the case. Options like prisoner exchanges and ministerial lobbying then become more likely to be on the table. But some families and advocates for foreign detainees say the parameters for invoking the law are murky, and those held under exit bans or convictions like Hunt and Wells Jr. are not labeled wrongfully detained. Though they get visits from State Department representatives, families are often in the dark as to how they might seek recourse. “The first six years were horrible,” Wells Sr. said, describing plea after plea to lawmakers’ offices seeking help for his son. “A lot of money spent on lawyers, financial burdens, the whole nine yards — it wasn’t worth anything,” he said. “At the beginning, everybody was telling us, ‘Be quiet, don’t say anything, this is going to hurt Nelson more than help him,’” he added. Public lobbying campaign Last year the Wells and the Hunt families both decided to begin a public lobbying campaign, appearing before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China to testify about their relatives’ cases. Depending on the level of interest and profile of the detainees, decisions about their release can rise to the highest levels of government, according to people familiar with the process. “If Trump, in going through a list of things with the Chinese, were to indicate that the release of these two Americans would be viewed favorably in Washington, that would certainly be the way to move things,” said Michael Kovrig, a Canadian former diplomat and Asia analyst. Kovrig was once detained as part of what was widely seen as a diplomatic tit-for-tat involving frictions among Washington, Ottawa and Beijing. In 2018, he and another Canadian were arrested and accused of espionage shortly after Canada, at the request of the US Justice Department, detained the Chinese businesswoman Meng Wanzhou, a Huawei executive, as she was leaving Vancouver. The US had accused Meng of breaching sanctions rules and later charged her with fraud. In Kovrig’s case, his release was secured after then-US President Joe Biden raised it with Xi on a phone call. In discussing the release of the Wells Fargo executive last month, Adam Boehler, the Trump official who leads the hostage envoy’s office, said, “The president has set the tone and made it very clear.” He added that ministers and diplomats are also “explaining that US policy has changed and that it is a huge negative to hold Americans, and that is best expressed directly.” The State Department said: “We take our commitment to assist US citizens abroad seriously and are closely monitoring their situation and providing consular assistance.” A spokesperson for the National Security Council said: “President Trump has been clear that he wants every American detained abroad to return home.” Senior administration officials are aware of the Hunt and Wells cases, though, as of last week did not have plans for the issue to be raised Thursday. But James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based lawyer who has advised the families, pointed out that China would have reasons to look favorably on releasing them, too. “The Chinese do not want American citizens dying in their prison,” Zimmerman said. “It doesn’t look good.” CNN’s Kylie Atwood, Alayna Treene and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.
