Sylvia Zin, whose husband Min U Zin has been held since June on charges of spying and endangering national security, appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee's East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee to urge the administration to prioritise the case.
"I'm deeply hopeful that President Trump will raise my husband's case with President Xi Jinping at the summit next week," she said during the hearing, titled Lives, Not Leverage: The Long Arm of China and North Korea's Repression.
Min Zin, a director at the Myanmar Institute for Strategic and Policy Studies, was arrested on 3 June after travelling to Kunming for an academic conference. The think tank focuses on China's role in Myanmar, including Chinese interests and regional influence. Congresswoman Young Kim, the subcommittee chairwoman, said Beijing "wanted to send a message to those whose research inconvenienced it" and detained Zin ahead of the upcoming summit.
Sylvia Zin also voiced confidence that Trump could secure the release of Chen Youlin, a US seismologist who tracks nuclear tests and has been held in China for two years. "Knowing the president's historic record on bringing wrongfully detained Americans home has reassured me," she said.
Xi is scheduled to arrive in Washington DC for a state visit on Wednesday, following Trump's trip to Beijing in May. Families of other detainees, including the son of Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai, have also travelled to the capital to advocate for prisoners they consider wrongfully held.