Ted Cruz joins calls for China to release American Mark Swidan

The family of a Texas man awaiting execution in China ten years after he was arrested on bogus charges say President Biden is ‘cherry picking’ high profile cases to wade into like Brittney Griner’s and Trevor Reed’s. 

Mark Swidan was arrested in China in 2012 after telling his mother he was traveling to buy cheap furniture for his home in Houston.  He was arrested in his hotel room on suspicion of working with the cartel to make methamphetamine. 

Swidan has always denied the allegations. He was sentenced to death in 2019 and earlier this month, lost an appeal on the sentence. 

He is now awaiting execution in China with a date yet to be set. He was  given a two year suspension on his sentence at a recent hearing. 

Swidan’s frustrated mother, Katherine, says her son would be home by now if he was famous or more trendy

In an interview with NewsNation, his mother Katherine says she has never once heard from the White House or President Biden. 

Unlike in the cases of WNBA star Brittney Griner, ex-Marine Trevor Reed or Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, no one from the Biden administration has intervened to try to secure his release. 

‘It’s like Mark doesn’t exist. I think the government is cherry picking.’ 

Earlier this month, the State Department said it was ‘disappointed’ by China’s decision to uphold the sentence. 

A UN report on the arrest found that Swidan as being arbitrarily detained. 

While many of the details remain classified, a source close with the negotiations to free him told DailyMail.com he was in the wrong place at the wrong time while a legitimate drug dealing bust occurred, and that he may have been caught filming it. 

Upon his arrest, Chinese officials were determined to confiscate his phone and its contents, the source said. 

NBA star Brittney Griner was freed after the Biden administration stepped in to release her from Russian custody 

Trevor Reed was released from Russian custody last April (left) after much persistence from his family. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich remains in custody in Russia (right) 

After discovering that Swidan was not involved in the drug dealing, the official said it is possible Chinese authorities had to ‘reverse engineer’ charges to justify their actions. 

A spokesman claimed both Secretary Blinken and President Biden were ‘personally’ invested in bringing him home. 

But Mark’s mother says she hasn’t heard from anyone in the current administration. 

Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn introduced a resolution on the Senate floor calling on China to release him. Nothing has come of it from Beijing. 

In an interview with NewsNation’s Leland Vittert last night, Cruz fumed: ‘It’s been over ten years since Mark Swidan has been trapped in a hell hole. They’ve sentenced him to death on bogus charges. It’s long past time. 

Swidan’s mother says she still hasn’t heard from anyone in the Biden administration 

‘I’ve spoken with his mother repeatedly, I’ve spoken to the Chinese government, I’ve spoken with the Biden administration… it is time for China to send this American hostage home.’ 

Cruz claimed that the case came to a standstill when Secretary Blinken canceled a planned trip to China after a ‘spy balloon’ was detected in the US. 

‘We had been pressing the State Department to make Mark Swidan’s case a major priority for the administration in that trip.

‘Then the Chinese spy balloon came and Blinken canceled his trip and the Biden administration just ineptly allowed the spy balloon to engage in espionage across the entirety of the continental United States, spying on military facilities and sending that information back to Beijing.

‘Since then, we’ve seen no progress since Mark Swidan.’ 

Actor Mel Gibson has also made an impassioned plea for Swidan’s return. 

‘The United States government has demanded his release, and we, as Americans, should stand up for this man who represents the best of us,’ he said in a video statement earlier this week. 

Actor Mel Gibson has also made an impassioned plea for Swidan’s return