As the Trump-Xi summit approaches, families of Americans detained in China are pleading with Washington to act.

The families of two Americans imprisoned in China for more than ten years are appealing to the US president. Donald Trump to personally intervene with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to secure their release at the bilateral summit scheduled for this week.

The inmates involved are Dawn Michelle Hunt, a former flight attendant and artist from the Chicago area, and Nelson Wells Jr., a father of three from Louisiana. Both were convicted of drug trafficking after, according to their relatives, being caught up in separate "blind drug mule" cases, where people transport narcotics without their knowledge.

The families say the health of the two prisoners has deteriorated significantly over the years of detention and hope that Donald Trump will take advantage of his meeting with Xi Jinping to demand their release on humanitarian grounds.

For the American president, who has often presented himself as a negotiator capable of bringing back American citizens detained abroad, such a breakthrough would represent a symbolic diplomatic success in a summit that may produce few concrete results on major international issues.

Discussions between Washington and Beijing are expected to focus on trade tensions, Iran, issues related to Taiwan, and economic cooperation between the two powers.

According to Reuters, Beijing may see the release of the two Americans as a low-cost diplomatic gesture that could temporarily improve relations with the Trump administration, while relations between the two countries remain strained on many strategic issues.

The cases of foreign nationals detained in China are regularly at the heart of diplomatic discussions between Beijing and Western countries, with several governments accusing Chinese authorities of using certain detentions as political leverage in their international relations.