May 24, 2022

On the one year anniversary of his mother’s death, Kai Li made a trip to China to attend his mother’s memorial and visit family and friends. Unfortunately, Kai Li never got past the airport that day. He was apprehended as soon as he got off the plane at the Shanghai Pudong Airport by the Ministry of State Security. Kai Li was then subject to Residential Surveillance, RSDL, for 10 weeks. During his time in RSDL, Kai Li was placed in an undisclosed location, where he was interrogated, placed on 24/7 surveillance including restroom use, deprived of sleep, and subject to forced confessions which would then be used as “evidence” in a trial. After 10 weeks, Kai Li was transferred to Shanghai No. 1 Detention Center, which is a detention center meant to temporarily hold people accused of crimes. 

Unfortunately, Kai Li spent a total of 28 months in this detention center; there was no furniture, no facilities, no climate control, and he remained in a small cell that contained 8 prisoners. His trial got pushed back from May to July 2018. In July of 2018, Kai Li was sentenced to 10 years in prison and was accused of espionage and stealing state secrets. Under Chinese law, there are no restrictions on what can be considered a state secret, facilitating the illegal detention of foreigners in China. Through further inspection by Kai Li’s lawyer, it was determined that the “state secrets” that Kai Li was accused of having knowledge on are publicly available on the Chinese internet, even behind China’s “Great Firewall” that is meant to heavily censor the Chinese internet. 

As a result, the U.S. Government and the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention have both declared that Kai Li’s detention is arbitrary and have called for his immediate release. However, that has not happened yet. In March of 2019, Kai Li was transferred to Shanghai’s Qingpu prison to complete his 10-year sentence. During his first 3 months in prison, Kai li was allowed to have a family member and consular officer visit two times a month. He was also allowed to make phone calls to his family, though everything was strictly monitored. Kai Li was restricted on what he could say to the consular and his family. At that time, Kai Li appeared okay with the exception of losing a significant amount of weight, blood pressure concerns, and recovering from shingles. Kai Li’s family was grateful for the phone call updates and the in person consular visits.

However all of that would crumble in January of 2020 when COVID-19 broke out in China. As a result, all in person consular and family visits would cease. 30-minute in person visits were then replaced with a single 7.5 minute phone call each month. During this time, Kai would report food shortages in the prison. Packages that were sent to Kai Li by his family would get rejected due to COVID-19 concerns. As though things couldn't get worse, Kai Li’s family became heavily concerned when they never received a phone call from Kai Li in November 2020. After inquiring about this to the U.S. government, Kai Li’s family received notification weeks later from the State Department that Kai Li had been in the hospital for 17-18 days undergoing “routine medical tests”. What those medical tests determined was that Kai Li had suffered from a stroke, and that his blood pressure was abnormally high. This came as a surprise to his family as Kai Li had normally suffered from low blood pressure, which indicated to them that Kai Li must have been put under immense stress in prison. 

Since the latest COVID-19 lockdowns in China starting in March 2022, the Consulate was told that phone calls would no longer be allowed. According to the prison, the phone system was not working and they would not allow anyone to come in and fix it due to covid concerns. Unfortunately, nobody has heard from or seen Kai Li since March 2022. There have been no consular visits, no family visits, and no family phone calls. The family has been relentlessly pushing the U.S. Government for a status update on Kai Li’s health. After months, they finally received a one-line status update: “Kai Li suffers from high blood pressure, he is taking medication, he is stable.” This one-line status update did not ease the family’s concerns instead it has raised concerns. During their last family phone call, Kai Li was relieved that his blood pressure had stabilized and that he no longer was taking the medication prescribed to him. The fact that his blood pressure went up was very alarming. 

With no real update on Kai Li’s health, his family is left in the dark worrying each and every day. When they do press the State Department for information, they are left with a cold and heartless response: “There are many Americans in China who are suffering”. Feeling let down by their own government, Kai Li’s family was also forced to pick up the pieces left behind by Kai Li. Kai Li’s son and wife had to somehow manage the gas station that Kai Li operated. All this while his son attempted to finish college and get a degree. This left the family in severe stress, and in financial turmoil. Unfortunately, Kai Li’s son and wife could not keep the business afloat, and it was taken away from them. The business that Kai Li built, and provided his family through, was now gone. Everything seemed to be falling apart for Kai Li and his family, with virtually zero assistance from the U.S. Government. Unfortunately, Kai Li’s story mimics the stories of many other American hostages left behind. The U.S. government must do more to protect and provide for their Americans held illegally in foreign countries.