Trump to ask XI to free US scientist, his wife says

The wife of a US expert on North Korean nuclear tests who has been imprisoned in China since late 2024 on Tuesday said the White House had assured her that US President Donald Trump would ask Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to free her husband when the pair meet this week.

Rong Yufang (榮玉芳) said she feared that Beijing planned to try her Chinese-born husband, Chen Youlin (陳有林), on fabricated espionage charges even though his US-funded research was openly published, used publicly available data and was done in collaboration with Chinese scientists.

Trump was yesterday to welcome Xi for their second meeting since May as the heads of the world’s leading powers seek stability amid tensions ranging from trade to Iran and Taiwan.

Rong Yufang, wife of Chen Youlin, a Chinese-born US scientist who is imprisoned in China, speaks during an interview in Washington on Tuesday.

Photo: Reuters

Rong said she was assured during a Tuesday meeting at the White House with officials from the US Department of State and National Security Council that Trump would ask Xi to free her husband.

Chen, 54, is one of two Americans held by Beijing that the US has designated as “wrongfully detained,” making their release a top priority. The other is Min Zin, an academic arrested in June.

Rong said she was told that Trump also would press Xi to release Min Zin.

Trump raised Chen’s case with Xi during a visit to Beijing in May, but it produced no action, Rong said.

“Resolving the wrongful detentions of US citizens is always a top priority for the president,” a senior US official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said that the “relevant US person” is suspected of engaging in activities that endanger China’s national security and violate Chinese law.

“China is a country with rule of law, and there is no such thing as wrongful detention,” he told reporters in Beijing, without elaborating.

Chen, whose detention was revealed in July, is a seismologist with a US government contractor. His work detecting shock waves from North Korean underground nuclear tests has been openly funded by the US Department of State and the US Air Force Research Laboratory.

He became a US citizen in 2011 and settled in the Boston area.

He was arrested by Chinese state security officers on Nov. 5, 2024, at Beijing International Airport as he prepared to fly home after visiting family and lecturing at two universities.

Rong said her husband had been interrogated more than 100 times.

“I can’t imagine how hard his life is there every day,” she said.

She believes China wants to use her husband’s expertise to improve its ability to conceal nuclear tests using decoupling, a technique in which a device is detonated inside a large underground chamber to reduce the size of the shock waves.

The US has accused China of using decoupling to try to mask a low-yield nuclear test blast on June 22, 2020. China, which like the US has signed but not ratified a 1996 international ban on nuclear tests, denies conducting the test.

US embassy officials had been allowed to visit Chen for about 30 minutes once a month, always in the presence of Chinese officials, Rong said.

They read out letters she had written to him and he dictated his replies.

“They record his appearance, his mental status and just anything that they observe,” she said, adding that Chen’s Chinese lawyer was not allowed to discuss his visits with her.

Rong is concerned about the conditions of her husband’s confinement, where she said he received substandard medical care and food. He has high blood pressure and diabetes.

Asked what she would say to her husband if she could see him, Rong said: “’Be strong. Be optimistic. There are a lot of people helping you. You will come back for sure.’”