China Detains American Citizen on Spying Charges

The U.S. has raised the case directly with Chinese officials and called for the researcher’s release, the State Department said.

A sign outside the State Department in Washington on July 11, 2025. Saule Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

China has detained a U.S. researcher for nearly two years on spying allegations, his family and supporters revealed on Tuesday.

Chen Youlin, a Chinese-born American seismologist, was arrested at an airport in Beijing in November 2024 as he prepared to return from a family visit to Boston, Massachusetts, according to the Foley Foundation, a nonprofit advocating for American hostages and wrongful detainees abroad.

Beijing’s State Security Bureau accused Chen of espionage related to his research for U.S. government-funded projects, according to the rights group.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has classified Chen as wrongfully detained by the Chinese authorities, the group said.

The Department of State on Tuesday confirmed that the United States has raised Chen’s case directly with Chinese officials and called for his immediate release.

“We reiterate our call for Mr. Chen’s release,” a State Department spokesperson told The Epoch Times.

Chen’s wife, Rong Yufang, who broke her silence on Tuesday, thanked President Donald Trump and senior administration officials on X for their efforts to secure her husband’s freedom. She described Chen as “the only U.S. wrongful detainee” held in China for more than 600 days.

Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the president, assured the family that Chen is among the Americans the administration is working to free.

“Bringing all Americans home is the priority for President [Trump],” Gorka wrote on X.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also voiced support for Rong while denouncing Beijing for using U.S. citizens as political leverage.

“Responsible governments do not use Americans as political leverage—a message worth remembering,” Risch said on X.

Rong Yufang and her husband Chen Youlin, an American seismologist held for nearly two years in China, pose together in an undated photograph. Courtesy Rong Yufang /Handout via Reuters

U.S. embassy staff have been granted access to visit Chen but are unable to discuss the case with him, according to the Foley Foundation.

The group also expressed concerns about the researcher’s health—he suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure—and worries that he may not receive the proper medical care he needs every day.

When asked about the case at Tuesday’s briefing, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian rejected the label of “wrongful detention,” saying the country’s judicial authorities handle cases in “accordance with the law.”

His comment came weeks after Chinese authorities confirmed the detention of another U.S. scholar on suspicion of spying. U Min Zin was arrested in early June after traveling to China to attend a state-sponsored academic conference at which he was invited to speak, according to the U.S. State Department.

Since then, the U.S. Embassy in China has issued multiple travel warnings on X, reminding Americans to stay alert to the risks of deportation, detention, or exit bans imposed by Chinese authorities.

Currently, the State Department’s travel advisory urges U.S. citizens to exercise “increased caution” while traveling to China, citing the risks of “arbitrary enforcement of local laws.”

The revelation of Chen’s detention came months ahead of an expected visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to the United States. Trump has said that Xi would visit Washington on Sept. 24, a plan later confirmed by China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, who said Xi would make a state visit “this autumn.”

The two leaders last met in May in Beijing, where they discussed a wide range of issues, including China’s political prisoners such as Ezra Jin, a pastor who founded the country’s largest underground church. Earlier this month, Jin was released from a Chinese detention center and reunited with his family in the United States.