Xiyue Wang

Xiyue Wang (; born December 31, 1980) is a Chinese-American academic who was imprisoned in Iran from 2016 to 2019 after being accused of espionage. U.S. law enforcement arrested the Iranian stem cell scientist in Fall 2018 upon his landing in Chicago for violating the sanctions against Iran. A PhD candidate in the Department of History at Princeton University, Wang was arrested in Iran on 8 August 2016 on charges of espionage while he was conducting research on the Qajar dynasty. It was alleged that he had sought access to confidential areas of Tehran libraries, paid thousands of dollars for access, and recorded 4,500 pages of digital documents.

In July 2017, he was sentenced to ten years in prison by Iran. In response to the sentencing, the United States Department of State released a press statement saying "The Iranian regime continues to detain US citizens and other foreigners on fabricated national-security related charges."

Early life Wang was born on December 31, 1980, in Beijing, China. He earned a BA in South Asian studies from the University of Washington, attended Harvard University from 2006 to 2008, then later worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan. While in prison, Wang faced harsh conditions and did not even have room to straighten his back. In an article published in The Atlantic,

Free Xiyue Wang movement

In July 2017, the American Council on Education and 31 other higher education and research associations issued a statement calling for Wang's release. More than 1,000 researchers from 25 countries signed a petition also calling for his safe return.

On September 21, 2018, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that "there was no legal basis for the arrest and detention of Mr. Wang. His deprivation of liberty is arbitrary."

On February 15, 2019, Princeton students held a Free Xiyue Wang Day event.

On December 7, 2019, Iran announced the release of Wang in exchange for an Iranian scientist, Masoud Soleimani, held by the United States.

Post-prison Activities Since his return to the United States, Wang has been vocal in his criticism of the Iranian regime and the regime's appeasement by the Biden administration and progressive academics. After his return to Princeton, Wang has described Iran-friendly academics, including those who encouraged him to go to Iran, unsympathetic with some of them blaming the ordeal on Trump's administration despite the fact that Wang was arrested three months before Trump was elected. In a Wall Street Journal piece, Wang rejected the view that attributes Iran's hostility towards the U.S. to the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, arguing that the Iranian regime's hostility is "self-perpetuated", "proactive", "integral to the regime’s identity" and "rooted in a fierce anti-Americanism enmeshed in its anti-imperialist ideology", as he witnessed firsthand during his time in Iran. His wife and son are Chinese citizens,

Wang's mother has American citizenship. In 2001 he moved to the US with her. He became a naturalized citizen in 2009.