Trump claims he discussed release of political prisoners in China with Xi at summit

On a recent Wednesday, US President Donald Trump disclosed that he engaged in talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the release of political detainees in China during a summit in Washington. "We had some very, very important discussions," Trump told reporters, indicating the talks were fruitful. Families of political prisoners in China had been urging the Trump administration to push Beijing to release their loved ones before Xi's three-day state visit.

Trump confirmed he had raised the cases of political prisoners with Xi, but did not specify which individuals were mentioned. The families of Min Zin, an American scholar, and Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying were among those pushing for Trump to discuss their loved ones' cases with Xi. Trump had previously raised the case of Pastor Ezra Jin, who was released, and Lai during a meeting with Xi in Beijing in May.

Min Zin was detained in China in June and accused of espionage and endangering national security. The Chinese government believes Min's background as a former student activist in Myanmar and his US-funded academic work may have caught the attention of the Chinese security services. The family of Chen Youlin, a Chinese-American scientist, also intensified their efforts in recent weeks.

Chen was arrested at Beijing's airport while preparing to leave for a month-long holiday in November 2024, accused of espionage, possibly due to his previous work analyzing seismic data that included North Korean nuclear tests. Both Min Zin and Chen Youlin have been formally designated as "wrongfully detained" by the US government, but Beijing has rejected those labels.

The families of Dawn Michelle Hunt and Nelson Wells Jnr, who spent over a decade in Chinese prisons after drug convictions, also advocated for their freedom at the summit. Peter Humphrey, a former SCMP China correspondent and fraud investigator, is working with the Hunt and Wells families. "We've been getting constant feedback from our contacts in Beijing that the Chinese side is very open to considering a humanitarian release, provided there's a request from the American president," Humphrey said.

The White House had previously stated that Trump intended to raise cases of wrongfully detained Americans with Xi during the summit. For US President Donald Trump, releasing Americans detained overseas has been a priority throughout his presidency.