WASHINGTON — More than three months after Min Zin, a U.S. scholar of Myanmar politics, was detained in China, his wife made a direct plea on Wednesday to President Donald Trump, asking him to secure her husband's freedom when meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week.
“Knowing the president’s historic record on bringing wrongfully detained Americans home has reassured me that he will also be able to secure the swift release of Min Zin and other wrongfully detained American citizens," Sylvia Zin said during a congressional hearing.
Min Zin, a University of California-Berkeley scholar and executive director of the think tank ISP-Myanmar, traveled to China in June for an academic workshop when he was detained by China’s state security on suspicion of endangering national security, his wife said.
He is one of two U.S. citizens designated by the State Department as wrongfully detained in China. The other is Youlin Chen, a Chinese-born American seismologist who has been detained in China for nearly two years. Their cases are now considered a high priority for the U.S. government when engaging diplomatically with Beijing.
As Xi's expected visit to Washington draws near, families of those detained in China are coming to Washington, hoping that attention at the highest level could bring their loved ones home. The son of imprisoned former Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai also was on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, making a push for his release on humanitarian grounds.
In July, Beijing suddenly released Ezra Jin Mingri, a Chinese pastor, after Trump raised his case with Xi during a state visit to China in May.
Min Zin's wife worries about his health
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to a question about whether an agreement could be reached for the men’s freedom. The White House has said Trump wants every American detained abroad to return home.
In her testimony, Sylvia Zin said she was in “a state of absolute shock” when she learned of the charge against her 53-year-old husband. His work is open-source research on Myanmar, and he is dedicated to independent academic freedom, she said.
“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 testified before the House foreign affairs subcommittee for East Asia and the Pacific.
She has not been able to speak directly with her husband and learns about his condition through U.S. consular officials who visit him.
“So every month, we anxiously await his consular visits because they reassure us that he is alive,” Sylvia Zin said. From the U.S. officials, she said she learned that her husband was initially interrogated every day for four to six hours and is held in a small cell where the light stays on around the clock.
Family of Jimmy Lai continues the fight
During his May visit to China, Trump also brought up with Xi the case of Jimmy Lai, but later said it was “a tough one."
A Hong Kong court sentenced Lai to 20 years in prison in February following his conviction under a Beijing-imposed national security law.
Ahead of Xi’s visit to Washington, Lai's family is making another push.
“Let Jimmy Lai come home to his family and let him sit beside his daughter in her hardest moment,” his son Sebastien Lai said during a hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. He described his father as “a 78-year-old man who has already suffered enough.”
Lai's daughter, Claire, has been diagnosed with cancer. Her brother said she began chemotherapy in London last week.
Lai, a prominent critic of Beijing, founded a pro-democracy newspaper that was shut down during a crackdown following massive anti-government protests in 2019.
“At 78, he is the oldest political prisoner in Hong Kong, with his 20-year sentence looming over him. If he’s not freed soon, he will most likely die in prison,” his son said.
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Fu Ting reported from New York.