Biden grants clemency to Chinese national who lived in Chicago just before release of U.S. citizens in China

Ji Chaoqun, a Chinese national who came to Chicago to attend the Illinois Institute of Technology — and was serving a prison sentence for operating as an illegal Chinese agent in the U.S. until President Biden granted clemency a few days ago — apparently figured in the release Wednesday of three U.S. citizens held in China.

The White House announced the release of Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung from yearslong detention in China, saying in a statement that "thanks to this Administration’s efforts and diplomacy with the PRC (People's Republic of China) all of the wrongfully detained Americans in the PRC are home.”

Several news outlets reported Wednesday that Ji and another Chinese national serving time in a U.S. prison, Yanjun Xu, convicted of attempted economic espionage, were released from federal prisons as part of the deal. The White House declined to comment on what appeared to be a swap.

However, on Nov. 22, Biden, with no fanfare or public announcement, granted clemency to Ji and Xu, according to documents posted on the Justice Department website. That granting of executive clemency days before the release of the three Americans seems to have been part of the agreement between the two nations.

Biden, in commuting Ji's sentence to time served, does not mention in the document why he took the action. Ji is banned from returning to the U.S. and from receiving "any financial benefit, directly or indirectly, in any manner or amount, from any book, movie, or other publication or production, in any form or media, about the circumstances surrounding" the offenses, the commutation stated.

A motion filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago stated "defendant Ji Chaoqun has been released from U.S. Marshal’s custody" with no other information about why he was released or any reference to the presidential clemency.

Attorney Damon Cheronis, who represented Ji in his trial, told the Sun-Times he was unaware Ji's release was in the works. "I learned about it [Wednesday] morning, when he was released," said Cheronis. "It was not something that anyone was made aware of, including my client."

Cheronis said Wednesday evening that Ji already is home in Beijing and his family is happy to have him. "This is the end of a long road," he added. "Glad he's home."

In January 2023, Ji was handed an eight-year sentence after a jury in Chicago convicted him of acting as an illegal Chinese agent in the U.S., working with Xu.

After the sentencing, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois issued a news release stating that the trial revealed "Ji worked at the direction of high-level intelligence officers in the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security, a provincial department of the Ministry of State Security for the People’s Republic of China. Ji, a Chinese citizen residing in Chicago, was tasked by Xu Yanjun, a Deputy Division Director within the Ministry of State Security, with providing biographical information on certain individuals for possible recruitment by the JSSD."

Xu was serving a 20-year sentence for attempting to commit economic espionage and theft of trade secrets.

Ji's criminal complaint, filed in 2018, stated that according to immigration records, Ji "was born in China and arrived in the U.S. from Beijing, China on or about August 28, 2013, on an F1 Visa, for the purpose of studying in the U.S. He received his Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago in December 2015."

In 2016, Ji enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves under a program allowing legal immigrants with special skills to serve. During his trial, Ji said his goal was to become a U.S. citizen and get a job a the CIA, FBI or NASA.