U.S. travelers to Russia, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela also take undue risks of arbitrary detention.
Beijing and its allies sometimes detain Americans on spurious charges, allowing them little contact with the outside world. Detainees have been denied access to their families, health care, and U.S. consular officials. They can be held in solitary confinement, tortured, and deprived of food and clothing unless families arrange for delivery.
The families of the detained are understandably distraught. They pressure U.S. officials to prioritize their loved ones, but officials have limited bandwidth to negotiate. They have other priorities.
With Russia, U.S. diplomats prioritize ending the war in Ukraine that has so far caused 200,000 casualties. The United States also prioritizes damping down inflation, which has arguably caused trillions of dollars in U.S. stock market losses. Keeping Russian oil flowing at below the $60 price cap is one anti-inflationary measure pursued by U.S. officials.
Unfortunately for the detained, the risk of war between nuclear-armed superpowers, including over Taiwan and Ukraine, and trillions in global trade, usually take precedence over individual cases.
But these exchanges were failures for international norms. Suspected criminals got away because their terrorist governments took hostages.
The United States has a policy of not negotiating with terrorists. The more rogue states violate international norms, the more they resemble terrorist organizations. Giving into their hostage-taking is arguably giving into proto-terrorism.
If every time the United States captures a foreign fraud or arms dealer, the perpetrating country can arbitrarily detain an American, knowing it will pressure Washington to free the suspect, deterrence is undermined.
Rather than an unending cycle of submitting to demands from Moscow and Beijing, Washington should increase deterrence in anticipation of prisoner exchanges. If the U.S. reaction to the hostage-taking of American innocents is the detention of their non-innocents, then subsequent prisoner exchanges are arguably not giving in.
We can arrest more criminals from the rogue nations that wrongfully detain Americans, so we have something to bargain with that we wouldn’t otherwise have. We can let rogue nations know we do this, which will deter hostage-taking in the first place.
Other countermeasures that don’t give in include confiscation of rogue state assets for compensation of the detained and imposition of tougher travel restrictions on these countries. The Biden administration has increased warnings to travelers about the risks of traveling to rogue states, but warnings are insufficient.
Guileless travelers keep visiting countries they shouldn’t, risking not only themselves but U.S. national security. When detained, the U.S. government must expend resources, including through possible policy concessions, to get their return.
Tourists, businesses, and their dollars would be channeled to friendlier nations that support democracy, ultimately strengthening U.S. alliance systems.
To avoid rewarding hostage-taking, we can create new sanctions on China and its allies that explicitly link to the issue of arbitrary detentions. Those sanctions can be bargained with for detained Americans without offering concessions on existing issues. That way, we prioritize freeing detainees without giving in to terrorism.