President Trump has suggested that he saved three American college basketball players, who had been detained in China for shoplifting, from prison terms as long as a decade.

But experts say the players for the U.C.L.A. team, who were accused of stealing sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store in Hangzhou, China, probably would have been released even if Mr. Trump had not raised the case with President Xi Jinping during a visit this month to Beijing.

Shoplifting is considered a relatively minor crime in China, and foreigners convicted of minor crimes are often deported rather than given prison sentences.