OAN Staff James Myers
9:25am – Wednesday, November 27, 2024
Weeks before President-elect Donald Trump retakes the White House, the Chinese government has released three Americans sentenced to heavy sentences on charges of espionage and drug trafficking.
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The release was announced by the outgoing Biden administration, but it is unclear whether it is part of a broader agreement with China or whether President Trump will impose new 10% tariffs on fentanyl exports to China on Monday. It is still up in the air whether this is just a diplomatic measure in response to the threat.
Mark Swidan, Kai Li, and John Leung each enjoyed significant support among prominent Americans who said China's accusations were false.
Swidan, a Texas businessman who was sentenced to death on drug charges after his arrest in 2012, counts actor Mel Gibson among his supporters in the United States.
Lee, a solar businessman who has been in prison since 2016, is serving a 10-year sentence on national security charges, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York was among his supporters.
Schumer expressed concerns about Li's case directly to Chinese President Xi Jinping when he visited China as a member of Congress last year.
Meanwhile, Mr. Leon was arrested in April 2021 and was serving a life sentence on charges of espionage.
“They will soon return home and be reunited with their families for the first time in years,” the White House said in a statement.
Schumer credited Biden, 82, with securing mass releases.
“President Biden's personal engagement with President Xi made this joyous day possible,” Schumer said. “Thanks to President Biden, all Americans unjustly detained in the People's Republic of China will soon return home.”
But when President Trump rejoins the White House on January 20, he vows to take a tougher approach toward China.thtakes up the issue of fentanyl exports that have killed about 300,000 Americans under the Biden administration, according to preliminary federal estimates.
President Trump said in a statement Monday that he had “repeatedly discussed the issue of large quantities of drugs, particularly fentanyl, being shipped to the United States with China, to no avail.”
“Chinese representatives told me that if drug traffickers were caught in the act, they would impose the maximum penalty of death, but unfortunately they never complied, and drug traffickers, primarily through Mexico, Before there is an influx of drugs into our country. Until they stop, we will impose additional tariffs on China of 10% on top of any additional tariffs on all of the many Chinese products imported into the United States. ”
47th The president plans to force China to pay $50 trillion in “reparations” for mismanaging the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, which the FBI believes started with a lab leak in Wuhan. We discussed.
Last year, President Trump called for a “World Summit on Reparations.''
He claimed last year that Biden “was bribed and now he's being blackmailed,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) told the newspaper. new york post Biden has been “soft” on China, adding, “It probably has to do with business relationships, very possibly with Hunter and James Biden and some of the deals they made over there.” “It's expensive,” he said.
In 2018, President Trump imposed additional tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum on most countries, including China. It also imposed tariffs of 7.5% to 25% on Chinese products, which account for $362 billion in annual imports (more than half of the total).
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