GAI Director of Research Seamus Bruner weighed in on President Trump’s high-profile trip to China this week. Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to cover a wide range of topics, including Iran, artificial intelligence, and more.
But Bruner says China’s hostage diplomacy poses a direct threat to American citizens and must be confronted head-on by the POTUS. Bruner named Dawn Hunt and Nelson Wells, two Americans incarcerated in China on fabricated drug charges, as the most visible cases in a pattern affecting hundreds of U.S. citizens Beijing views as bargaining chips.
“China’s hostage diplomacy needs to end. And the case of Dawn Hunt and Nelson Wells is particularly egregious,” Bruner says. “They were incarcerated in China years ago on fake drug charges.”
Charges, Bruner says, that are ridiculous considering China’s role in America’s fentanyl crisis.
“It really brings to mind another issue that Donald Trump should bring up, which is the issue of fentanyl. How can China arrest Americans on drug charges when they’re the number one exporter of fentanyl to our country?” Bruner says.
“Unfortunately, there are hundreds of Americans incarcerated in China. These two just made the news because their families are so dogged, and Congress took up the cause. But there are many other political prisoners, so it’s a lot of leverage that Donald Trump has, in addition to trade and the issue of Taiwan and the Iran War.”
Watch the clip above.
