Fighting for Freedom

The families of two Americans detained in China are urging the U.S. government to secure their loved-ones' release

- NICK MORDOWANEC

THE BROTHER OF AN AMERICAN WOMAN SAID TO be wrongfully held in a Chinese prison for over a decade has a message for the federal government: "Don't just talk about it, be about it." Dawn Michelle Hunt has been in Guangdong Women's Prison since her 2014 arrest for drug smuggling—a charge that she, her brother and father have consistently denied. In a similar case, Nelson Wells Jr. has spent over a decade in a Chinese cell for drug charges that he and his representatives say are dubious.

"The time for politicking about this stuff, it's over," Dawn Hunt's brother, Tim Hunt, formerly a 28-year Chicago Police veteran, told Newsweek. "Everybody talks about reaching across the aisle; everybody talks about what's best for America because everybody wants to talk about making America strong. That's cool. But...other countries that ain't as strong are jealous. If they keep taking your people and you don't have a playbook to get your people back, you aren't as strong as you think you are. All these people...talking about doing stuff: please, please, please do it. Don't just talk about it, be about it."

Dawn Hunt and Wells Jr. are just two of an estimated 200-plus U.S. citizens said to be wrongfully detained by China. Americans John Leung, Kai Li and Mark Swidan came home the day before Thanksgiving last year as part of a prisoner swap, spurred by a congressional committee. It mirrored the return in September of U.S. citizen David Lin after nearly 20 years.

Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for China's embassy in the U.S., told