A US scholar who was invited to China for an academic event and later detained on national security charges has become the subject of a direct appeal to US President Donald Trump ahead of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.The wife of U Min Zin, a Myanmar politics scholar and head of the Myanmar Institute for Strategic and Policy Studies (ISP-Myanmar), has urged Trump to raise her husband’s case with Xi and seek his release when the Chinese president visits Washington next week.Min Zin travelled to the Chinese city of Kunming in June after being invited to attend an academic workshop. He subsequently disappeared from contact and was later detained by Chinese authorities on suspicion of endangering national security, according to his wife, Sylvia Zin.“I’m deeply hopeful that President Trump will raise my husband’s case with President Xi Jinping at the summit next week,” Sylvia Zin told a US congressional hearing on Wednesday.
Wife has not spoken to husband
Sylvia Zin said she has still not been able to speak directly with her husband and relies on visits by US consular officials for updates about his condition.“Every month, we anxiously await his consular visits because they reassure us that he is alive,” she told lawmakers.She said US officials told her that Min Zin was interrogated for four to six hours a day when he was initially detained and is being held in a small cell where the light remains on around the clock.“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,” she said.Min Zin, 53, is one of two US citizens whom the State Department has designated as “wrongfully detained” in China. The other is US seismologist Youlin Chen, who has been imprisoned in China for nearly two years.The designation allows the cases to be handled by the US Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs, raising their priority within the US government and allowing additional resources to be used in efforts to secure their release.
Families seek Trump’s intervention
The cases have gained attention in Washington ahead of Xi’s expected visit. Families of Americans detained in China travelled to the US capital this week to press for their release.The son of imprisoned Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai also appeared on Capitol Hill, urging Trump to seek his father’s release on humanitarian grounds.Trump had previously raised Lai’s case with Xi during his May visit to China. Trump later said Xi had told him that Lai’s case would be “a tough one”.The US president has also previously pressed Xi over the detention of Chinese pastor Jin Mingri, who was released two months after Trump’s request.A senior White House official told the BBC that resolving the wrongful detention of US citizens “is always a top priority for the President.”
