Xiyue Wang (Chinese: 王夕越; pinyin: Wáng Xīyuè; born December 31, 1980) is a Chinese-American academic[1] who was imprisoned in Iran from 2016 to 2019 after being accused of espionage.

[4] 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.

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

[11] Xiyue Wang supports the investigation of Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, a professor at Oberlin College in OH, who has been recently accused of allegedly hiding information about the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran.

[24][25] 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.

[20] Wang has advocated the maximum pressure policy and show of strength as leverages without which diplomacy with Iran and trying to re-enter JCPOA would fail.

[20][21] Wang is married to Hua Qu (Chinese: 曲桦; pinyin: Qū Huà), and they have a son born in 2013.