China's foreign ministry has confirmed the arrest of a US scholar on suspicion of spying, accusing him of endangering Chinese national security. U Min Zin, a director at a think tank focused on Myanmar, was arrested in early June, sources told the New York Times. He allegedly disappeared while in the Chinese city of Kunming, which borders Myanmar.
Further details about the arrest remain unknown. The detention is unusual as it is uncommon for China to arrest US citizens on national security charges. The arrest comes weeks after US President Donald Trump's visit to Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping, where the US leader received a grand welcome. It also coincides with Myanmar's President Min Aung Hlaing's planned visit to Beijing later next week.
Beijing is known to have a close relationship with Myanmar's junta, the military government that seized power in a coup in 2021. Min Zin was a student activist during Myanmar's 1988 pro-democracy movement and fled to Thailand to escape arrest. He later studied in the US and returned to Myanmar in 2010. According to the New York Times, he currently lives in Thailand but spends time in both the US and Myanmar.
Min Zin is the executive director at the Myanmar Institute for Strategic and Policy Studies (ISP-Myanmar), a think tank based in Thailand that studies China's role in Myanmar, including Chinese interests, relations, and regional influence. He is also a PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley, according to the Centre for Social Innovation and Foreign Policy.
Min Zin was in Kunming attending a meeting on 3 June when he was arrested at the airport, according to news agency AFP, which quoted several sources. One source said his family was 'worried' and that they were 'following up' with the US consulate in China's Guangzhou. Min Zin was due to speak at a conference in Kathmandu later this month.
