My father, Kai Li, is a US citizen detained in China since September 2016 - more than 5 years ago - on trumped up espionage charges. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has ruled that his detention is indeed in contravention of international human rights norms, and calls for his immediate release (https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Detention/Opinions/Session89/A_HRC_WGAD_2020_78.pdf

He's currently serving a 10 year sentence in Shanghai's Qingpu Prison. He shares a tiny cell with 10-11 others and no climate control, despite outdoor temperatures regularly dropping below freezing in the winter and above 95F (35C) in the summer with extremely high humidity.

While in prison, my father has suffered a stroke and been diagnosed with hypertension, despite previously having low blood pressure.

Recently, the Chinese government released two Canadians, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, who were detained on almost identical vague espionage charges. This came just hours after Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was allowed to return home to China after the US DOJ reached a deal with her attorneys, and occurred despite Mr. Spavor having been handed an 11-year sentence in August. The next day, the Chinese government also allowed two young Americans, Victor and Cynthia Liu, to return home following a 3 year exit ban.

These events erase any shadow of a doubt that the Chinese government uses national security charges as a hollow pretext for hostage diplomacy, the kidnapping of foreign nationals for political leverage. These kinds of charges enabled my father to be interrogated harshly every day and night for more than 2 months without access to legal representation in China's "black jails" (the much feared residential surveillance at a designated location, or RSDL). Additionally, his trial occurred behind closed doors. The judge has repeatedly told my father that she had no control over the outcome of his "legal" proceedings.

While it is great news that the Michaels and the Lius have been able to return home, it's not well known enough that China continues to hold a US citizen, my father, hostage for political reasons.

Please sign and share this petition to raise awareness and voice your concern to President Biden about my father's detention, and urge him to make my father's release a pre-condition for any sort of US-China cooperation. To do otherwise would be an implicit acceptance of the Chinese government's behavior.