Families of Americans imprisoned in China appeal to Trump for help

After living without their loved ones for more than a decade, two families of Americans detained in China are appealing to President Donald Trump to bring them home as he meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing.

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U.S. citizens Dawn Michelle Hunt, a 54-year-old from Illinois, and Nelson Wells Jr., a 52-year-old from Louisiana, are both in Chinese prisons on separate allegations of drug trafficking after their families say they were caught up in smuggling scams at the airport.

The Hunt and Wells families see the state visit this week, the first by a U.S. president since Trump last went to China during his first term nine years ago, as a rare opportunity for Trump to speak directly to Xi about releasing the two Americans, whose families say are both in declining health.

Nelson Wells Sr., a U.S. Army veteran, and his wife, Cynthia, say their son has been an inspiration, always uplifting and full of charisma, but that his mental state now seems fragile. In the 12 years he has spent isolated in a Chinese prison, they say, his health has gone from bad to worse and they don’t think it will get better.

“When I speak to Nelson, it tears me apart,” Nelson Wells Sr. told reporters Wednesday.

Tim Hunt, a retired police officer, says that his sister Dawn is the true artist of their family and that her arrival as a child softened their gruff police officer father and changed the whole family. But faced with a life sentence, Dawn’s physical and mental health have deteriorated to a point beyond recognition, he said, and he worries she may be suffering from uterine cancer.

“She’s angry. She wants to come home,” Hunt told reporters Wednesday, describing Dawn as hurt and broken by false promises of her release. “She feels that her country has let her down because nobody’s fighting for her.”

A spokesperson for the State Department confirmed that Wells and Hunt had been detained in China and said the Trump administration “has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans.”

“We take our commitment to assist Americans abroad seriously and are providing consular assistance,” the spokesperson said, adding that the department and its Chinese diplomatic mission “unwaveringly advocates for the health and welfare of all U.S. citizens detained in China.”

The spokesperson declined to comment further, citing privacy considerations.

Peter Humphrey, a British former prisoner in China who is now a consultant and advocate for those in similar situations, said the Trump-Xi meeting may give the families a reason for hope.

After they spent years advocating across the U.S. government under multiple administrations, the State Department finally made a formal request for the humanitarian release of Wells and Hunt last year. There is receptivity on the Chinese side to that request, according to Humphrey, who said Xi “likes king to king conversations.”

Humphrey said that Trump, who has pledged to secure the release of Hong Kong pro-democracy figure Jimmy Lai, will not get most of the things he asks of Xi during the two-day visit.

“It will be very difficult for him to bring Chinese political prisoners out of their jails. That’s not going to happen,” Humphrey said. “But when it comes to America’s own ordinary citizens, there is a really good chance that if he personally mentions these names to Xi Jinping, something will happen positively.”

While China released three wrongfully detained Americans in 2024, it remains one of the top countries to unjustly detain and imprison U.S. citizens, according to the Foley Foundation, which advocates for Americans wrongfully detained or held hostage abroad. The U.S. travel advisory for China warns that U.S. citizens “may be detained without access to U.S. consular services or information about their alleged crime” and “subjected to interrogations and detention without fair and transparent treatment under the law.”

As Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, Nelson Wells Sr. made a personal appeal to bring his son and Dawn Michelle Hunt home.

“Please, with all of your intelligence and all the things that you are capable of doing, you have the opportunity to join two families back with their loved ones. Have mercy, Mr. President,” he said. “Look out for American people like us.”