According to the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC: “China is a country governed by the rule of law. Its judicial authorities handle cases in accordance with the law, and there is no such thing as so-called wrongful detention.” The statements are false, however, both in general and with respect to the case being commented on, that of Min Zin.
Zin (shown above) was detained early in June 2026 after traveling to People’s Republic of China to attend an academic conference—at the invitation of the Chinese government. It apparently decided that it would be easier to invite Zin to an event and then kidnap him than to try to kidnap him in the United States. Foreign scholars critical of the Chinese government must add themselves to the list of people who should not go to China.
Formal designation
The U.S. State Department has now formally determined that Min Zin is being improperly held in the People’s Republic of China, a designation that “shifts the case from a State Department consular issue to one handled by its presidential office dealing with hostage affairs” (South China Morning Post, August 21, 2026).
It’s pretty obvious why the CCP might want to detain and silence Min Zin.
Zin, also known as U Min Zin, was a student activist during Myanmar’s 1988 pro-democracy uprising. After hiding for several years in Myanmar, he fled to Thailand before applying for and receiving asylum in the US.
He received a master’s degrees in Asian studies in 2010 and political science in 2011 from the University of California, Berkeley, and advanced to a doctoral degree program in political science at UC Berkeley. He is not currently enrolled.
In 2016, Zin founded the Institute for Strategy and Policy – Myanmar (ISP-Myanmar) and has written extensively in Foreign Policy and other journals about the Southeast Asian nation’s post-coup politics and economy. He has also written about Beijing’s influence in Myanmar’s border regions, including its ties to both the military government and ethnic armed groups.
The institute, originally based in Yangon, relocated to Thailand after the 2021 military coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government and plunged Myanmar into civil war.
In a statement on Thursday, ISP-Myanmar said it welcomed the State Department designation and urged the agency to make Zin’s release a top priority ahead of next month’s summit.
The allusion is to an expected Trump-Xi powwow in Washington DC.
U.S. President Donald Trump managed to secure the release of Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, founder of the underground Zion Church in China, by bringing up Jin’s case during meetings with Xi in Beijing in May 2026. The pastor was then released in early July. His only “crime” had been to practice his Catholic religion. Other members of his church and of other underground Christian churches are still being detained in China.
Youlin Chen
The U.S. State Department has also called on Beijing “to release other Americans held by China. Youlin Chen, a Chinese-born American seismologist from Boston, is being held on what the U.S. considers baseless charges and has been declared wrongfully detained.”
Also see:
The New York Times: “The Real Kingmakers of Myanmar” by Min Zin (June 4, 2021)
