US brokers release of three Americans it says were wrongly detained in China

The United States has brokered the release of three Americans it said had been wrongfully detained in China for many years, the White House said in a statement on Wednesday.

The White House national security council named the three as Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung and said all the US citizens it deemed to have been wrongly detained in China were now home. China says such cases are handled according to law.

Politico said the deal had taken years to finalise and that in return, a number of Chinese citizens detained in the United States would also be released.

A US official said President Joe Biden had pressed for the return of the three when he met Chinese President Xi Jinping this month at a regional summit in Peru.

In September, China freed US pastor David Lin, who had been in jail since 2006.