Sylvia Zin appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee on Wednesday, urging President Donald Trump to raise her husband U Min Zin’s case with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the state‑visit summit scheduled for the following day. Zin, the wife of a Myanmar‑focused think‑tank director, testified that she hopes the meeting will secure his freedom after his arrest on 3 June in Kunming during an academic conference.

U Min Zin, director of the Myanmar Institute for Strategic and Policy Studies, was detained on accusations of spying and endangering national security. In her testimony, Zin said she also wanted Trump to intervene on behalf of Chen Youlin, a US seismologist held in China for two years, noting the president’s “historic record on bringing wrongfully detained Americans home”. Congresswoman Young Kim, chair of the subcommittee, warned that travel to China could lead to hostage‑taking for diplomatic leverage and suggested Beijing’s detention of Zin was intended as a message ahead of the Trump‑Xi summit.

The hearing was attended by other relatives of Chinese detainees, including the son of Hong Kong media proprietor Jimmy Lai, who similarly called on Trump to intercede. A senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the BBC that resolving wrongful detentions of US citizens is a top priority for the president. The US State Department has formally labelled both U Min Zin and Chen Youlin as “wrongfully detained”, allowing their cases to be handled by the Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs.

Zin, who resides in Thailand, said she has not been able to speak with her husband since his imprisonment and relies on monthly consular visits to confirm his wellbeing. She alleged that he was subjected to up to six hours of daily interrogation when first taken into custody and expressed concern for their daughter’s future. The family’s appeal comes after a previous US‑China meeting in May, during which Trump raised the case of underground church leader Jin Mingri, who was released two months later.