This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Media outlets across America were headlining Joe Biden's announcement Thursday that he has granted a couple dozen more pardons and hundreds and hundreds of commutations.

But one headline getting attention was that about Biden's grant of clemency for a couple of Chinese spies, and the fact Biden did it without making any announcement.

The Biden family links to China long have been the subject of speculation about their extent, and their impact on his presidential decisions. Son Hunter Biden once traveled to China with then Vice President Biden and came back with a multi-million dollar business deal.

The secret clemency acts were described by the Federalist.

"X user Nick Sortor posted that 'Joe Biden just pardoned multiple Chinese spies and an individual convicted of possessing child p*rnography. WHY?'" charged the report, which noted Biden "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.'"

Biden's conclusion, as he said in his pardon, was, "it is in the national interest that the term of imprisonment related to the aforesaid conviction not be served in its entirety."

Xu was told to leave the U.S. and never return.

"Similarly, spy Ji Chaoqun was convicted of 'conspiracy to defraud the United States; impersonating agents of foreign governments; statements or entries generally,'" the Federalist report said.

He had arrived in the U.S. in 2013, later enlisting in the U.S. Army Reserves under a program for those with "special skills."

Federal authorities in Illionois said, "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."

Biden commuted the sentence, with the Chicago Sun-Times confirming it was "with no fanfare or public announcement."

The report continued, "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.'"

The Financial Times suggested the executive actions were "part of a prisoner swap" involving Mark Sweden, Kai Li and John Leung. However, such swaps typically are promoted by the president making them.