Beijing’s American Hostages

What will happen to those detained as U.S.-China relations deteriorate further?

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Stock art from Getty Images

Mark Swidan has been languishing in a Chinese prison since 2012, when the Texas businessman was arrested and accused of drug trafficking. Harsh conditions have caused him to lose significant weight, and he has spoken to his mother only once since his arrest. 

Yet those are far from the 48-year-old’s biggest problems: In 2019, a Chinese court sentenced him to death. He has appealed the ruling and remains in legal limbo, but there isn’t much evidence that Swidan has done anything wrong. While Chinese officials found drugs on a driver and translator who assisted Swidan during a trip to China, the American had no drugs on him or in his hotel room. A U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention review in 2020 concluded that China’s case against Swidan “is weak and circumstantial and based almost entirely on hearsay.” 

The most disconcerting part of this saga is that Swidan’s predicament is not unique. 

There are currently more than 50 Americans unlawfully detained in 20 countries, according to a database from the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation. The group found in a survey last year that the number of U.S. nationals detained nearly tripled between 2012 to 2022. Iran, China, Venezuela, North Korea, Syria, and Russia are the most frequent offenders, holding more than 60 percent of Americans detained abroad.

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  1. Avatar photo
    JohnM.

    Well, I didn't know about any of this 'til now. I get more than my money's worth from TD reading articles like this and Charlotte's recent piece on Turkey. Excellent work, Harvest. Thank you.

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    Chrisztopher Smith

    Yet we fund China at the expense of our own workers. Over 30 percent (that Might be too low) of items on walmart.com, amazon. com etc are counterfeits. This bleeds money out of American companies and puts it right in Chinas pocket. We really aren't saving that much it's just the convenience of not going to store or to a trusted retailer that's vetted it's products. Also the safety stuff we count on is so non existent that it's crazy. Google it. People have sued Amazon so many times and Amazon is not legally responsible for any harmful products they sell. It's wild. One more thing. Facebook and Google have zero responsibility for scam ads. They want that advertising revenue so they look the other way. All that scam money is going to China for terrible things (human trafficking, terrorist orgs, human rights violators) we scream about capitalism being bad when it's actually the perfect system but turn a blind eye to the outrageous way that companies no longer are legally required to police their products.

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  3. Bobby D

    Every time I come across the Swidan story, I feel like I’m not being told something. The guy was apparently seeking to furnish a new place he bought. So, instead of heading to IKEA, he hops on a plane to China, hires a driver and translator, and goes on a furniture-shopping adventure among the industrial backwaters of southern China. Who does that?

    There’s some suggestion that he was in China to scope out a business opportunity. If so, was he there on a business visa? If so, he would have to have one or more letters of support from prospective business partners. If that’s the case, why was he galavanting around southern China on his own with a sketchy translator and driver?

    it’s plausible that his arrest and detention was a pretext for something else. Even so, it seems like there ought to be a number of easy-to-obtain facts about his situation that never seem to make it into stories that use him as a poster child for unlawful detention.

    If he’s there on a tourist visa to look for some furniture to furnish his new place, why make such an investment of time and money? And what Chinese furniture factory is going to want to take the time to design and make one-off products for one guy. And, even if he’s looking to buy from the source to save money, it seems like the cost of the trip would easily dwarf any potential savings. If he’s there on a business visa, what was the business, who were his sponsors, and why was he doing all of the leg work instead of his sponsors?

    Also, when it comes to China, the Chinese government does not necessarily recognize certain US citizens of Chinese ethnicity as Americans. For example, if a wealthy Chinese couple came to the US to have a child in the US for the purpose of garnering US citizenship for the child and then returned to raise the kid in China, the Chinese government may view that child as American in name only. In that case, the child’s legal dealings with the government are a domestic matter for China. It would be helpful to know how many of those who are wrongfully detained fall into such categories. Yes, they are American and our government has certain obligations to the as citizens. But China is going to be less deferential to US appeals in these situations, as China likely views these persons as lawful subjects of the Chinese government.Expand full comment

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      JohnM.

      This was really an interesting comment. Thanks!

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      1. Bobby D

        Thanks. I used to travel to China regularly for work. So, colleagues and friends would always bring up this story to me concerning the dangers of traveling to China. But nothing adds up about this story. it’s full of internal inconsistencies and shrouded in unanswered (and unasked) questions. This makes me wonder whether he was there carrying out some sort of corporate or governmental espionage.

        I get the same feeling about the Whelan story. How on earth does a guy who got dismissed from the military as a result of a court martial for an act of moral turpitude end up as a security director for a global Fortune 250 company. He wouldn’t have even been eligible to become a notary in Michigan. But somehow he ends up as a director of security?

        I agree that we should be concerned about Americans locked up unlawfully abroad. But average Americans are going to find this cause to be more compelling if the lead stories aren’t so chock full of implausible facts.

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  4. Bigdonmck

    it's kinda tough to generate tons of sympathy for people who voluntarily visited Cins and Russia, for that matter. you took the risk. many times for a profit. sometimes things just don't work out.
    i hope the situation comes to a favorable resolution for the hostages.

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    Markdavis918

    the hell with sanctions. We should do something stronger than that.

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  6. Philebus

    Interesting article. When I read the number of 50, my thought was: 'Is that all?'. I don't mean to make light of the number, but it seems that the number should be in the hundreds (in actuality, it may be). Americans who travel to other countries, for business or pleasure need to understand that the same freedoms afforded in this country may not apply. The case of Brittney Griner comes to mind. She did actually break Russian law and, it cost the release of a Russian criminal (actual criminal) to gain her freedom. Pleased she's back home, but dang, should've been a little more prudent. Totally sympathetic to all cases; it is unjust, but it's not the US.

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      Emilyasbenson

      There are definitely those cases, but there are others (as highlighted above) where people enter a country in good faith, often having been there before under different regimes, and are falsely accused (such as Paul Whelan) and detained. Once an administration decides to ignore diplomatic overtures, it's a stickier situation.

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