House lawmakers demand China release detained American Mark Swidan

April 26 (UPI) -- The House voted overwhelmingly to approve a resolution demanding that China release Mark Swidan, an American who has been jailed in the Asian nation since 2012.

The resolution, which passed the House 418-16 on Tuesday, "demands that the government of the People's Republic of China and the Communist Party of China immediately release Mark Swidan."

It also condemns Beijing for refusing to provide its captive with regular communication with his family, access to U.S. diplomats and independent medical care, while directing the U.S. government to prioritize efforts to secure Swidan's release.

Swidan, of Houston, was detained Nov. 13, 2012, while on a business trip in China and accused of being one of 11 people involved in the manufacturing and trafficking of drugs.

On April 30, 2019, he was sentenced to death.

A U.N. working group in 2020 said in a report on Swidan's case that his detention was arbitrary and that his due process rights to a fair trial had been violated.

The vote Tuesday was held about two weeks after a Chinese Communist Party Court upheld Swidan's death sentence, which prompted the U.S. State Department to issue a statement of disappointment while vowing to continue to press Beijing for his immediate release.

The United States' position is that Swidan was wrongfully detained.

From the House floor Tuesday, the resolution's sponsor, Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, said that he hoped the vote would signal to China that Swidan's death sentence should not be enforced and that he should be freed.

"The People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party have a history of capturing innocent people and using them as pawns. This needs to stop," he said. "Unfortunately for them though Mark has defiantly refused to be coerced as he waits on his secure release."

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said in his House remarks that Swidan was a "hostage" of China and was being held "for a crime he clearly did not commit."

"Threatening an American with death for a crime that he could not have possibly committed is a brazen human rights violation and a disgusting example of CCP's hostage diplomacy," he said.