Family urges Trump to raise jailed US scholar's case with Xi Jinping at Washington visit

The wife of a US scholar imprisoned in China has asked President Donald Trump to raise his case when he meets Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington next week. Sylvia Zin told a congressional hearing that she was deeply hopeful Trump would press Xi for the release of her husband, U Min Zin, who was arrested in the Chinese city of Kunming on 3 June after travelling there for an academic conference. The case has become part of a wider campaign by families of Americans detained in China who are seeking attention for their relatives ahead of the state visit.

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Zin gave her testimony on Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee's East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee at a hearing titled Lives, Not Leverage: The Long Arm of China and North Korea's Repression. She said she believed Trump could also help secure the release of Chen Youlin, a US seismologist who has been held in prison in China for two years. In her remarks, she said Trump's record on bringing wrongfully detained Americans home had reassured her that he could help secure the swift release of her husband and others.

The hearing also featured warnings from lawmakers about the risks faced by Americans who travel to China. Congresswoman Young Kim, who chairs the subcommittee, said Beijing may take Americans hostage as leverage in diplomatic negotiations. She added that U Min Zin had been detained ahead of the upcoming Trump-Xi summit, saying the arrest sent a message to researchers whose work had inconvenienced Chinese authorities.

The hearing took place as Xi is due to arrive for a state visit to Washington on Wednesday, following Trump's visit to Beijing in May. U Min Zin is the director of the Myanmar Institute for Strategic and Policy Studies, known as ISP-Myanmar, a think tank that studies China's role in Myanmar, including Chinese interests, relations and regional influence. He was a student activist during Myanmar's 1988 pro-democracy movement.

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His detention has therefore drawn attention not only because of his US ties, but also because of the broader pattern of cases in which foreign nationals are held in China amid diplomatic tensions. The issue has become part of a wider prisoner-release campaign in Washington, where families of detainees have travelled to the capital to press their cases. The son of Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai also appeared on Capitol Hill to call on Trump to secure his father's release.

Trump has previously raised the issue of detained Americans with Xi, and told reporters that the Chinese leader had said one case would be a difficult one. That history has added to expectations among families that the upcoming meeting could produce movement, even if no outcome is guaranteed. What remains unclear is whether Trump will raise U Min Zin's case directly with Xi, and whether any broader agreement on detainees will emerge from the visit.

A senior White House official was asked for comment on Thursday, but no response was included in the material provided. For now, the case remains one of several being used by families and lawmakers to press for the release of Americans held in China. The coming summit will show whether those appeals translate into any concrete diplomatic action.

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