US Seismologist Held Two Years on China Espionage Charges Identified by Family

Youlin Chen, a China-born American seismologist, was detained by Beijing in late 2024 on espionage charges tied to his research on North Korean nuclear weapons tests. His family broke silence in mid-July 2026, calling for his release after seeing no sign the government intended to free him. Chen conducted seismic analysis of Pyongyang's nuclear program using US government-funded data, work that sits between legitimate academia and national security—terrain Chinese authorities increasingly treat as espionage.