As President Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, the families of two Americans imprisoned in China for more than a decade are urgently appealing to him to raise their cases directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their high-stakes summit.
Mr. Trump is also being prodded by House Speaker Mike Johnson to broach the subject of the two imprisoned Americans: Nelson Wells Jr. and Dawn Hunt, who both suffer deteriorating health while in a Chinese prison.
The human rights issue will compete with the Trump-Xi summit’s crowded agenda of global issues, such as Taiwan, trade and the Iran war.
Mr. Trump’s arrival was one of diplomatic formality.
He was greeted on the tarmac by a delegation including Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and 300 Chinese children dressed in blue-and-white uniforms waving U.S. and Chinese flags.
Mr. Han and Mr. Trump walked the red carpet together, and children chanted in Mandarin, “Welcome, welcome, enthusiastically welcome.”
Any discussions about the imprisoned Americans would likely have to wait until the two superpower leaders are behind closed doors.
Before he left for China, Mr. Trump called Mr. Xi a “leader of extraordinary distinction” and said he would ask him to “open up” China.
Nelson Wells Sr. called on Mr. Trump to have “mercy and compassion” and make the case to bring home his son and Ms. Hunt.
“With all of your intelligence and all the things that you are capable of doing, you have the opportunity to join two families back with their loved ones,” the elder Mr. Wells said. “Have mercy, Mr. President, look out for American people like us. Please do your job. We need you. We are depending on you.”
The White House would not say whether Mr. Trump would bring up the imprisoned Americans.
“President Trump is always concerned about Americans detained abroad. We do not detail private diplomatic conversations to the press,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to The Washington Times.
The younger Mr. Wells and Ms. Hunt did not know each other. They were arrested in separate drug-smuggling busts in China. Their families became close through their shared ordeal.
Mr. Wells Jr., a Louisiana native, claims an acquaintance asked him to carry luggage, which he did not know contained illegal drugs, onto a plane leaving China. He was arrested at the airport in May 2014.
Ms. Hunt, a former flight attendant and artist from Chicago, claims she was lured to China for a fake sweepstakes “prize,” and then given purses containing illegal drugs on a trip to Australia. She was arrested at the airport in April 2014.
According to their families, Mr. Wells Jr. suffers from severe seizures, dangerous weight loss and isolation. Ms. Hunt has untreated uterine fibroids and possible cancer.
Mr. Wells Jr. was initially sentenced to life imprisonment but had his sentence reduced to 22 years in 2019, leaving him incarcerated until 2041.
Ms. Hunt was sentenced to death with a 2-year reprieve in 2017, but it was later commuted to life imprisonment. She is incarcerated in Guangdong Women’s Prison.
In testimony before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Ms. Hunt’s brother described the sexual abuse and mistreatment his sister endured in prison, as well as her severe, untreated medical problems.
Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, has long advocated for the two prisoners. He planned to contact Mr. Trump about them during the summit, he told The Times on Wednesday.
According to the Foley Foundation, in 2024, more U.S. nationals were wrongfully detained in China than in any other country.
The Dui Hua Foundation reports that over 200 U.S. nationals are detained “under coercive measures” in China, with limited information available about their cases.
Some of these Americans are subject to “exit bans,” preventing them from leaving China as a means to pressure their relatives or associates to return to China to face vague criminal charges or settle commercial disputes in which they may not even be personally liable, lawmakers on the Congressional-Executive Committee on China have said in their legislation advocating for Ms. Hunt and Mr. Wells.
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