WASHINGTON (AP) — Ahead of a high-stakes summit between the U.S. and Chinese leaders, the wife of a detained Chinese American seismologist expressed hope that an intervention by President Donald Trump could bring home her husband, Youlin Chen, nearly two years after he was detained in China.
Along with issues ranging from artificial intelligence security to Iran, Trump is expected to raise with Chinese leader Xi Jinping the cases of Chen, 54, and Min
Zin, 53, the only two American citizens considered by the U.S. government to be wrongfully detained in China.
“When he’s personally involved in such cases, Americans come back home. That’s what I've learned,” Yufang Rong told The Associated Press in an interview in Washington on Tuesday, a day before Xi's arrival.
Trump spoke with Xi about Chen when the U.S. president was in Beijing in May, Rong said, and if Trump mentions the case again this week, “I’m sure ... this case would be solved soon."
The White House has said Trump wants every American detained abroad to return home. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to a question about the cases of both men, whose families have traveled to Washington to meet senior U.S. officials ahead of Xi's visit.
Chen, who was born in China and moved to the U.S. in 1998 for academic pursuits, was detained in November 2024 by China’s state security agents when he was wrapping up a personal trip to visit his parents in Beijing, Rong said.
Chen, who studies the Earth and earthquakes and is based in Boston, was stopped at an airport and was later charged with espionage, a charge the family denies. “He has done nothing wrong,” Rong said.
Chen's work is open and transparent, and he has collaborated with scientists around the world, including those in China, Rong said. She said his detention came as an utter shock.
“No one had expected such a thing would happen to him. He is a seismologist. He has been doing his research during his entire career,” Rong said.
Chen also studies nuclear tests, including those in North Korea, his wife said.
“He can use data to detect if something (that happens) underground is a natural earthquake or is a nuclear explosion. And he can, using his methodologies, he can estimate the size of the nuclear explosion,” Rong said, speculating that Beijing might have targeted Chen for his expertise.
Since his detention, Rong said she has never had direct contact with Chen but learned about his condition through U.S. consular officials who periodically visit the scientist.
Through notes dictated to those consular officials, Chen has told his wife not to worry about him and even still conveys how to handle mundane household chores such as changing air conditioning filters.
“But I know he is going through such unthinkable difficulties,” Rong said. “It's very hard to read his message each time.”
“I really worry about his health — mental health and physical health,” she said. “He has a lot of medical conditions: diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels. I don't think he has access to the medication that he used to have in the U.S.”
The other wrongfully detained U.S. citizen in China is Min Zin, a scholar of Myanmar politics who was detained in June when traveling to the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming for an academic workshop.
He's held on suspicion of endangering national security, according to his wife, Sylvia Zin.
A group of American lawmakers introduced a bipartisan resolution last week condemning China's wrongful detention of the U.S. scholars and urging the U.S. government to prioritize their safe return.
“It is my hope that this bipartisan resolution from the United States Congress will bring increased attention to the unjust detention of Dr. Youlin Chen and Min Zin and force the Chinese government to do the right thing and release them immediately,” said Sen. Ed Markey, D.-Mass., who represents Chen's home state.
Some lawmakers also expressed hope that Trump could bring up with Xi other detentions in China, including those of activists, Christians and members of ethnic minorities.
