US Scholar's Wife Pleads with Trump to Secure Release at Xi Meeting

U Min Zin, the director of a think tank focused on Myanmar, was arrested on June 3 after travelling to the Chinese city of Kunming for an academic conference. His wife, Sylvia Zin, testified to Congress on Wednesday that she is deeply hopeful President Donald Trump will raise her husband's case with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the summit next week.

Xi is due to arrive in Washington DC on Wednesday for a state visit. It comes after Xi hosted Trump for a visit to Beijing in May. Ahead of the meeting, families of prisoners being held in China have travelled to the US capital to advocate for their release.

Min Zin, a student activist during Myanmar's 1988 pro-democracy movement, directs the Myanmar Institute for Strategic and Policy Studies (ISP-Myanmar), a think tank that studies China's role in Myanmar. This includes Chinese interests, relations, and regional influence.

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The son of Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai also appeared on Capitol Hill to call on Trump to secure his father's release. The US president previously raised the case with Xi, telling reporters that his Chinese counterpart "told me that would be a tough one".

A senior White House official, speaking anonymously, told the BBC: "Resolving the wrongful detentions of US citizens is always a top priority for the President."

Zin, who lives in Thailand, told the committee on Wednesday that she has not yet been able to speak to her husband in jail, "so every month, we anxiously await his consular visits because they reassure us that he is alive".

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Last month, the US State, Department shared. that two Americans - U Min Zin and Chen Youlin - were being "wrongfully detained" in China.

This designation in the US allows the cases to be transferred to the office of the Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs - raising the profile of each case and allowing the US government to allocate more resources to securing their release.

Zin said US officials had told her that Min Zin was being subjected to up to six hours of interrogations each day when he first arrived in jail. "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.

Last time Trump and Xi formally met, Trump pressed for the return of another American in jail. Underground church leader Jin Mingri was freed two months after Trump's request. Chinese underground church figure Jin Mingri freed from prison This billionaire tested China's limits.