China detains US scientist who studied Nuclear weapons
Reuters Chen Youlin (right) and his wife Rong Yufang pose for a photograph with the mountains and a lake in the backgroundReuters
Chen Youlin (right) specialises in using seismological data to track nuclear tests
China has detained a US seismologist who tracks nuclear tests for nearly two years on espionage charges, his family says.
Chen Youlin, 54, was arrested in November 2024 during a trip to Beijing to visit family, according to hostage advocacy group Global Reach. The family decided to speak out after they saw no sign of Beijing freeing Chen.
His wife Rong Yufang, also a seismologist, said Chen worked closely with Chinese colleagues, and the allegations are “both wrong and inconsistent with the public and collaborative nature of the work that he has done”.
His published work centres on North Korea, a close friend of China and long sanctioned for its nuclear weapons programme and underground tests.
It is unclear if and how Chen’s work touched on Beijing’s nuclear programme. US intelligence suggests that China is developing a new arsenal and has conducted secret tests, which Beijing denies.
When asked about the case at a daily press briefing on Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry said its “judicial authorities handle cases in accordance with the law”.
”There is no such thing as so-called wrongful detention,” the ministry’s spokesman Lin Jian said. In China, espionage convictions can lead to life imprisonment or death.
Chen is currently the only US citizen designated as “wrongfully detained”.
”I have not been able to speak with my husband for over 600 days and am concerned for his health and well-being,” Rong said in a statement through Global Reach.
In an interview with Reuters, she said Chinese authorities interrogated her husband more than 100 times on his work and that he wasn’t allowed to see a lawyer for the first 13 months of his detention
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