A Chinese-American seismologist detained in Beijing for nearly two years faces espionage charges punishable by life imprisonment or death, following research funded by the U.S. government on North Korean nuclear tests.
Youlin Chen, 54, was arrested on November 5, 2024 at Beijing airport while preparing to return to Boston. His wife reported he has been interrogated over 100 times since his arrest. Chen was formally indicted on May 1, 2025, though no trial date has been set. In a 2020 paper, he analyzed seismic signatures of North Korea's six known nuclear detonations using publicly available Chinese data, according to funding disclosures from the U.S. State Department and Air Force Research Laboratory.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated Chen as wrongfully detained on March 19. Chen remains the only U.S. citizen currently classified as unlawfully detained by China. The case surfaces amid broader tensions over nuclear transparency, after the Trump administration accused Beijing of concealing a low-yield nuclear test in 2020.