Detained U.S. Seismologist's Wife Seeks Trump Intervention

Yufang Rong said White House State Department and National Security Council officials assured her Tuesday that President Trump will ask Xi Jinping on Wednesday to free her husband Youlin Chen. Chen, 54, a seismologist with a U.S. government contractor whose research was funded by the State Department and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, was detained November 5, 2024 at Beijing International Airport as he prepared to fly home after visiting family and lecturing. He became a U.S. citizen in 2011 and settled in the Boston area. Trump raised Chen's case with Xi in Beijing in May with no result. Rong said he has been interrogated more than 100 times, has diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and through 30-minute monthly U.S. embassy visits with Chinese officials present dictates replies and household instructions such as changing air conditioning filters. "When he's personally involved in such cases, Americans come back home. That's what I've learned," Rong told the Associated Press the day before Xi's arrival. Rong says Chen has done nothing wrong and is a career seismologist; his family denies the espionage charge. Families of Chen and Min Zin traveled to Washington to meet senior U.S. officials ahead of Xi's visit. Min Zin, 53, a scholar of Myanmar politics, was detained in June in Kunming on suspicion of endangering national security.