China arrests U.S. citizen on suspicion of spying

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — China has arrested a U.S. citizen on suspicion of spying, the Chinese government said Friday.

Min Zin, who heads a think tank focused on his native country of Myanmar, was detained on arrival at Kunming airport in China's southwest Yunnan province on June 3, according to sources including diplomats in the region who are familiar with the arrest. They spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, which they were not authorized to discuss.

The sources said Min Zin had gone to Kunming at the invitation of a Chinese academic institution.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in a news conference Friday that Min Zin was detained on suspicion of engaging in "espionage and endangering Chinese national security."

The U.S. State Department confirmed that it is "aware of reports regarding a U.S. citizen detained in China" but did not provide further details. "The Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans. Whenever a U.S. citizen is detained, we work to provide the appropriate consular assistance," it said in a statement to NPR.

It is rare for China to detain U.S. citizens on national security charges, with only a few such known cases in recent years. It comes just weeks after the Beijing summit between President Trump and China's leader Xi Jinping aimed at easing tensions between the two competing powers. It also took place ahead of next week's state visit to China by Myanmar's president, Min Aung Hlaing.

Min Zin was a student activist in the 1988 democracy movement in Myanmar, then called Burma. He is a founding member and executive director of the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar (ISP-Myanmar), a nongovernmental think tank previously located in the former capital, Yangon. Since Myanmar's 2021 coup, ISP-Myanmar has operated from various locations, producing analysis on conflict dynamics and governance. It has also focused on relations between Myanmar and China.

Min Zin is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of California, Berkeley, according to an online biography. His analysis on Myanmar has been featured in The New York Times, Foreign Policy and on NPR.

ISP-Myanmar declined a request to comment about the arrest, as did Min Zin's wife.

China is one of few countries to endorse Myanmar's recent election conducted by the military junta, carried out the 2021 coup. Most Western countries and human rights groups have dismissed the vote as a sham.

Both China and Russia continue to arm Myanmar's military as it wages war against its own people. China has also told ethnic communities along the countries' shared border to stop arming resistance groups battling Myanmar's military, crippling the resistance effort.

China's influence in Myanmar has been a frequent topic in Min Zin's writing. So has the civil war that continues to rage in Myanmar despite the election.

Jennifer Pak contributed reporting from Beijing; Michele Kelemen contributed from Washington.