Wife of U Min Zin has urged Trump to raise her husband’s case with Xi.
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.
He subsequently disappeared from contact and was later detained by Chinese authorities on suspicion of endangering national security, according to his wife, Sylvia Zin. 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. 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.
“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. 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. 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.