China Power | Diplomacy | Southeast Asia

Ahead of Xi Visit, US Designates American Held in China as ‘Wrongfully Detained’

Min Zin, who heads a leading Myanmar-focused think-tank based in Thailand, has been accused of “engaging in espionage and ​endangering China’s national security.”

The U.S. State Department yesterday designated Myanmar scholar and U.S. citizen Min Zin as “wrongfully detained,” two months after his arrest in China on espionage charges.

The move was announced by Dylan Johnson, assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, who said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had made the designation after “an extensive review of the circumstances” surrounding Min Zin’s arrest on June 3.

“The safety and security of U.S. citizens is the State Department’s top priority,” Johnson said. “We will continue to advocate for Mr. Zin and call for the release of all U.S. citizens who are arbitrarily detained or exit banned in China.”

The announcement follows a report by Reuters news agency about the designation, which cited a senior State Department official.

The State Department said that Min Zin is the second American who is wrongfully detained in China after Youlin Chen, a Chinese-born American seismologist from Boston who has published U.S.-funded work on North Korean nuclear tests. He was arrested in November 2024 and designated wrongfully detained by Rubio in March.

Min Zin, the executive director of the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar (ISP-Myanmar), disappeared on June 3 while visiting the city of Kunming in Yunnan province for a conference.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirmed his arrest a week later, stating that Min Zin, a former student activist who participated in pro-democracy protests in 1988, had “been placed under criminal detention by the ​relevant authorities in accordance with the law on suspicion of engaging in espionage and ​endangering China’s national security.”

The senior State Department official told Reuters that Min Zin was detained inside the airport and has been “subjected to repeated interrogations, isolation and detention conditions” for nearly 11 weeks.

“One minute his colleagues and family were engaging with him on the phone – exchanging updates on his arrival time and plans in China – and the next minute communication was lost,” the official told the news........

© The Diplomat