China Arrests US Citizen Suspected of Espionage

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian. (Twitter/@MFA_China)

JAKARTA - Chinese authorities said on Friday that a US citizen was arrested on suspicion of espionage.

"Min Zin is suspected of espionage and endangering China's national security," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters in Beijing, Anadolu (12/6) reported.

He has "been criminally charged (and) China has informed the US Consulate General in Guangzhou," Lin said.

Confirmation of Min Zin's arrest came after he "disappeared on June 3 while in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, which borders Myanmar," according to The New York Times.

"All of Min Zin's legal rights are fully protected," Lin said.

The New York Times, which first reported Min Zin's arrest, reported that he was a graduate student at UC Berkeley and founder of a research group based in Myanmar.

"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 various locations since the 2021 military coup in Myanmar. For years, he has spent time in the United States and his home country, Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, and now he lives in Thailand," the report said.

Min Zin has written extensively about Myanmar politics.

Meanwhile, the US State Department told the daily that they were aware of reports about an American citizen being detained in China.

According to the report, US citizen Kai Li was convicted of espionage in China in 2016, but was among three Americans released by Beijing in 2024 in a prisoner swap with Washington.

Another American convicted of espionage, Sandy Phan-Gillis, was deported from the country in 2017 after being held for more than two years, the report added.

The report also said about 200 US citizens were in "various forms of detention" or facing "exit bans" in China, including those jailed on drug charges and others involved in commercial or financial disputes.