The plight of Americans facing exit bans in China shows the enduring risks of getting caught in the country’s murky legal system.

Three American citizens who had been detained for years in China were released, a State Department spokesperson said Wednesday.

The Americans released, among others, a Chinese intelligence officer who was serving a 20-year sentence in the United States.

The three US nationals were swapped for four people, including three Chinese citizens who were returned to China.View on euronews

China has released three American prisoners who were being detained for at least three years as part of a prisoner swap that was announced by the White House. NewsNation contributor Kurt Bardella and Lauren Wright,

Americans Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung are en route back to the United States from imprisonment in China, the White House said.

Three Americans who had been detained in China for years have been released in a prisoner swap between Washington and Beijing.

The Americans freed from China are Mark Swidan, a businessman from Texas, who was arrested in 2012 and accused of drug related offenses; Kai Li, who had been held since 2016 on espionage charges; and John Leung, who had residency in Hong Kong, and was sentenced last year to life in prison on spying charges.

China released three Americans as part of a prisoner swap between the Biden administration and the Chinese government, according to a person familiar with the matter, a rare moment of cooperation between the adversaries.

All of them had been designated by the U.S. government as wrongfully detained by China. Officials and humanitarian aid groups said the three Americans were arrested on arbitrary and unlawful charges.

The Biden administration recently brokered a prisoner swap with China, resulting in the release of three Americans — Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung — who had been imprisoned in China for years. In exchange,