The plight of Americans facing exit bans in China shows the enduring risks of getting caught in the country’s murky legal system.

The State Department announced the release of Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung. A U.S. government official told NBC News the three were exchanged for Chinese detainees.

All of them had been designated by the U.S. government as wrongfully detained by China. Officials and humanitarian aid groups said the three Americans were arrested on arbitrary and unlawful charges.

The Biden administration recently brokered a prisoner swap with China, resulting in the release of three Americans — Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung — who had been imprisoned in China for years. In exchange,

Three American citizens imprisoned for years by China arrived back in the United States late Wednesday. Their release, announced earlier by the White House, was the result of a rare diplomatic agreement with Beijing in the final months of the Biden administration.