U.S. President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet in Washington. Before the Trump-Xi meeting, Chen Youlin’s wife said the White House assured that Trump would demand the release of her husband detained in China.

U.S. President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet in Washington this week, attracting global attention. Yufang Rong, the wife of American seismologist Youlin Chen, said before the Trump-Xi meeting that her husband had been detained by China since the end of 2024, and stressed that the White House had assured her that Trump would ask China to release her husband when he meets with Xi Jinping.

According to Reuters, Chen Youlin was responsible for research on detecting shock waves generated by North Korea's underground nuclear tests. He became a U.S. citizen in 2011 and settled in the Boston area. On November 5, 2024, after visiting his family in China and giving lectures on his research at two universities, Chen Youlin was detained by Chinese national security personnel as he was preparing to fly back to Boston from Beijing International Airport.

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Rong Yufang pointed out that when she met with State Department and National Security Council officials at the White House on the 22nd, she received assurances that Trump would ask Xi Jinping to release her husband. Rong Yufang claimed that Chen Youlin's research was funded and published by the United States and was conducted in cooperation with Chinese scientists, but she was still worried about China's plan to try her Chinese-born husband on trumped-up espionage charges.

Chen Youlin is one of two Americans detained in China who have been deemed "wrongfully detained" by the U.S. government, and his release has been listed as a priority for the U.S. government. The other person is American scholar Min Zin, who lost contact after visiting China on June 3 for academic activities. Chinese authorities later confirmed that he had been detained, accusing him of espionage and endangering China's national security.

Rong Yufang said that the White House promised her that Trump would ask Xi Jinping to release her husband, and also informed her that Trump would ask Xi Jinping to release Min Xin.