Originally Authored at TheFederalist.com
President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that he was granting 39 pardons and 1,499 commutations in what his administation called the “largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history.” But it’s not Thursday’s set of commutations that have caught the attention of concerned Americans — it’s those that were quietly given weeks ago to Chinese spies.
X user Nick Sortor posted that “Joe Biden just pardoned multiple Chinese spies and an individual convicted of possessing child p*rnography. WHY?”
But the thing is, Biden didn’t “just” commute the sentences for these criminals — he did it quietly only days before Thanksgiving.
While most Americans were finalizing their menus and getting into the holiday spirit, Biden commuted the sentence of Yanjun Xu on November 22. Xu was convicted in 2022 for “conspiracy to commit economic espionage; conspiracy to commit trade secret theft; attempted economic espionage by theft or fraud; attempted theft of trade secrets by taking or deception.”
But according to Biden’s pardon, “it is in the national interest that the term of imprisonment related to the aforesaid conviction not be served in its entirety.”
Xu was ordered to leave the United States and never return or commit any other crimes against the United States, according to the pardon.
Similarly, spy Ji Chaoqun was convicted of “conspiracy to defraud the United States; impersonating agents of foreign governments; statements or entries generally.” Ji arrived in the United States in 2013 on an F1 Visa before later enlisting in the U.S. Army Reserves “under a program allowing legal immigrants with special skills to serve,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
According to the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, “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.”
But Biden commuted his sentence. “On Nov. 22, Biden, with no fanfare or public announcement, granted clemency to Ji and Xu,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported, noting that the move may have been part of a prisoner swap. Notably, Biden doesn’t indicate in either document granting clemency why he chose to do so.
Damon Cheronis, the attorney who represented Ji, told the Chicago Sun-Times he was not notified about the clemency beforehand.
“I learned about it [Wednesday] morning, when he was released,” Cheronis told the Chicago Sun-Times. “It was not something that anyone was made aware of, including my client.”
Even more disturbing, Biden also granted clemency to Shanlin Jin, who was convicted after “police found more than 47,000 images and videos of child pornography in his computer.” One such video allegedly showed “an adult male sexually assaulting a female infant,” according to The Dallas Morning News.
The three commutations were reportedly part of a prisoner swap in exchange for Mark Sweden, Kai Li, and John Leung, according to Financial Times.
But prisoner swaps are typically hailed by the president and the media. When basketball player Brittney Griner was released from Russia (in exchange for the man known as “Merchant of Death”), Biden held a press conference at the White House celebrating Griner’s return.
Biden similarly held another event when Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were released.
So why was Biden and his administration so quiet about this Chinese swap?
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2