As Chinese President Xi Jinping prepares for a high-stakes state visit to Washington DC next week, where he will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, families of American citizens wrongfully detained in China have descended on the U.S. capital to push for urgent action to secure their loved ones’ release. At the center of these appeals is Sylvia Zin, the wife of imprisoned U.S.-affiliated scholar U Min Zin, who publicly called on Trump to raise her husband’s case directly during the upcoming bilateral summit.
U Min Zin, a respected scholar who leads the Myanmar Institute for Strategic and Policy Studies (ISP-Myanmar), a think tank focused on Myanmar’s regional relations and China’s growing influence in the country, was taken into custody in the Chinese city of Kunming back on June 3, shortly after he arrived to attend an academic conference. A former pro-democracy student activist during Myanmar’s 1988 uprising, U Min Zin’s research has long examined Chinese strategic interests and regional power dynamics in Southeast Asia.
Appearing Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific during a hearing focused on wrongful detentions by China and North Korea, Sylvia Zin laid out her desperate plea to the administration. “I’m deeply hopeful that President Trump will raise my husband’s case with President Xi Jinping at the summit next week,” she told lawmakers. She added that she is confident Trump can also secure the release of Chen Youlin, a U.S. seismologist who has been held in a Chinese prison for two years while monitoring nuclear testing activity in the region.
Sylvia Zin, who resides in Thailand, told the committee she has been barred from direct contact with her husband since his arrest. “Every month, we anxiously await his consular visits because they reassure us that he is alive,” she said, sharing that U.S. officials have informed her that U Min Zin faced up to six hours of interrogations daily in the initial period of his detention. “I’m trying to be strong for our daughter, but I’m constantly wondering if he’s OK and how to get him back home to us.”
The hearing was chaired by Representative Young Kim, who opened the session with a stark warning for U.S. citizens considering travel to China. “If you travel to China, Beijing may take you hostage as leverage in diplomatic negotiation,” Kim said, adding that U Min Zin’s detention was a deliberate show of force ahead of the summit. “Beijing wanted to send a message to those whose research inconvenienced it, and detained Mr Zin ahead of the upcoming Trump-Xi summit.”
Another high-profile detainee’s family also joined the advocacy push on Capitol Hill this week. The son of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai appeared before lawmakers to request Trump raise his father’s case once again during talks with Xi. Trump previously brought up Lai’s detention during past talks with the Chinese president, and told reporters afterward that Xi had described the case as “a tough one.”
Last month, the U.S. State Department officially formally designated both U Min Zin and Chen Youlin as “wrongfully detained” while in Chinese custody. This classification triggers a formal process that transfers oversight of the cases to the Office of the Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs, a move that elevates the priority of the detentions and allows the U.S. government to dedicate additional specialized resources to securing their release.
Citing Trump’s track record of securing the return of wrongfully held Americans, Sylvia Zin expressed cautious confidence in the president’s ability to deliver results. “Knowing the president’s historic record on bringing wrongfully detained Americans home has reassured me that he will also be able to secure the swift release of Min Zin and other wrongfully detained citizens,” she said. Past precedent supports this hope: during Trump and Xi’s last formal meeting, the president pressed for the release of underground Chinese church leader Jin Mingri, who was freed just two months after Trump formally raised the request.
When reached for comment by the BBC this week, a senior anonymous White House official confirmed that resolving wrongful detentions of U.S. citizens remains a core priority for the administration. “Resolving the wrongful detentions of US citizens is always a top priority for the President,” the official said.
Xi’s upcoming state visit marks the return meeting after Trump traveled to Beijing for a bilateral summit last May, making the discussion of detained American citizens a central point of friction on the agenda ahead of the talks.