House Democrat urges Biden to intervene in case of American jailed in China

Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday sent a letter to President Biden urging him to personally intervene in the case of an American businessman imprisoned in China on charges criticized as unjust and arbitrary. 

Suozzi, in his letter to Biden, said that the American Kai Li is facing “imminent danger,” with his health rapidly deteriorating due to unsanitary prison conditions made worse by a record-breaking heatwave in Shanghai and a “vulnerable mental state.”

“After six years of unbearable anguish for Mr. Li and his family, please prioritize Mr. Li’s release and make every effort to secure his freedom on humanitarian grounds, as quickly as possible,” Suozzi wrote.

The Democratic lawmaker wrote the letter to bring attention to Li’s case following Biden’s signing of an executive order aimed at increasing transparency and assistance for Americans detained abroad. 

The executive order directs U.S. agencies to share more information with families of Americans that the U.S. government says are wrongfully detained abroad, expand authorities to sanction foreign officials or persons involved in unjustly imprisoning Americans and labeling countries as a high risk for wrongful detentions. 

The executive order was signed as the Biden administration faces pressure to secure the release of Americans Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan who are imprisoned in Russia on charges the administration criticized as being carried out as retaliation by the Kremlin against U.S. policy toward Moscow.

In a breakthrough last month, Biden secured the release of imprisoned former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed with a prisoner swap. Reed had been held for two years.

Li, a 60-year-old American Chinese man from Long Island, has served four years of a 10-year sentence on charges of espionage and spying for the FBI, which have been criticized by the United Nations, which has said he is “wrongfully” detained.

July 25 marks the four-year anniversary of his imprisonment. He was first detained in 2016 while in China visiting the country to commemorate the one-year anniversary of his mother’s passing. 

Suozzi, in his letter, said Li’s family has reported that he is kept in a tiny cell with 11 other prisoners at the Qingpu Prison, only taken out for daily COVID-19 testing and one weekly hour of exercise, and that the prison is under scrutiny for allegations of forced labor.

Since being imprisoned, Li has suffered a stroke, high blood pressure, chronic gastritis and shingles. His family says that his immune system “has become very weak,” Suozzi wrote in the letter.  

Suozzi further criticized the conditions of Li’s arrest and imprisonment, saying he was originally detained incommunicado for 10 weeks, underwent harsh interrogations, and then spent 27 months waiting for a trial that was held in “secret,” where family members and U.S. officials were prohibited from attending. 

“China’s gross violation of Mr. Li’s due process does not only harm him and his family, but it strikes terror into the hearts of Chinese Americans, who fear, with reason, that they can also become victims of political retaliation and face torture and imprisonment when they visit their loved ones in China,” Suozzi wrote.

“For an American citizen to face such cruel and degrading treatment, is unacceptable.”