The arrest of U Min Zin, who did graduate studies at U.C. Berkeley and directs a research group on Myanmar, took place soon after President Trump met with Xi Jinping in China.
Chinese security officers have arrested an American citizen who studies politics in Myanmar, an authoritarian nation on China’s southwest border, and accused him of endangering national security, according to people with knowledge of the arrest.
The U.S. citizen, U Min Zin, was arrested in early June, the people said on the condition of anonymity because of sensitive diplomacy surrounding the previously unreported arrest. He disappeared on June 3 while in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, which borders Myanmar. American diplomats are aware of the arrest.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman confirmed the arrest when asked about it at a news conference in Beijing on Friday afternoon, hours after this article was published. The spokesman, Lin Jian, said that Mr. Min Zin had been arrested on suspicion of “engaging in espionage activities that endanger China’s national security.” The Chinese government had notified the U.S. consulate general in the southern city of Guangzhou, he said.
It is rare for China to arrest a U.S. citizen on charges of a national security crime, and the action against Mr. Min Zin takes place as President Trump and Xi Jinping, China’s leader, are trying to establish a type of partnership between the two nations.
The president of Myanmar, Min Aung Hlaing, plans to make a five-day visit to China starting next Monday at the invitation of Mr. Xi, said Mr. Lin.
Mr. Min Zin is a political scientist and executive director of a policy research group originally based in Yangon, the former capital of Myanmar. The group has worked from different locations since a 2021 military coup in Myanmar. Over the years, he has spent time in both the United States and his home country of Myanmar, once known as Burma, and he now lives in Thailand.