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Mark Magnier

The US State Department said on Thursday that it had determined after a detailed investigation that Min Zin, an American political analyst of Chinese descent detained by Beijing last month, was being improperly held.
That formal designation shifts the case from a State Department consular issue to one handled by its presidential office dealing with hostage affairs.
Thursday’s terse statement, which said the decision was made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, adds another irritant to the fraught bilateral relationship just weeks before Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump are scheduled to hold a summit in Washington.
“Secretary Rubio has determined that US citizen Min Zin is wrongfully detained in China,” the agency said in a release attributed to Assistant State Secretary Dylan Johnson. “This follows an extensive review of the circumstances surrounding his June 3 detention in Yunnan, China, where Mr Zin had travelled to attend an academic conference at the invitation of the Chinese government.”
The US agency further noted that this is the second wrongful detention designation involving China, following the case of Youlin Chen, a seismologist arrested in November 2024 at Beijing International Airport as he prepared to fly home to Boston.
“The safety and security of US citizens is the State Department’s top priority,” the State Department added. “We will continue to advocate for Mr Zin and call for the release of all US citizens who are arbitrarily detained or exit banned in China.”


The Chinese embassy in Washington said 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,” said embassy spokesman Liu Chang.
In the past, however, Beijing has maintained that any imprisonment and travel restrictions imposed on Americans are legitimate and in keeping with Chinese law.
In June, a week after the arrest, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian announced at a regular press conference that Zin had been detained on suspicion of “engaging in espionage and endangering China’s national security” without elaborating.
Eric Lebson, chief strategy officer with Global Reach, a nonprofit group that works with families to return Americans wrongfully detained abroad, said in an interview on Thursday that he received assurances from the National Security Council [NSC] that the Trump administration will raise these cases with Xi next month if they are not resolved.
“President Trump has been really consistent since taking office in his second term that bringing home Americans is a personal priority for him,” Lebson said. “He hasn’t just told his people to do it. He has personally involved himself in the efforts.”
Global Reach has worked closely with the Chen family and advised Zin’s family informally, he said, adding that Trump’s efforts have seen some 110 Americans returned.
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.
China is Myanmar’s largest trading partner and a key investor, particularly through Belt and Road Initiative projects such as the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, oil and gas pipelines, ports and mining operations. China has publicly backed the junta and maintained engagement despite the ongoing conflict and criticism of the political transition.

Chen’s case, meanwhile, remained largely under the radar until last month when his relatives went public about his detention nearly two years after the arrest, also on espionage charges.
Their disclosure came shortly after Trump brought up Chen’s case with Xi during their May summit in Beijing, Lebson said, and Global Reach was hearing from NSC and State Department officials that there was little indication of movement from Beijing.
China formally charged Chen on May 1, 2025, with espionage, leading to his wrongful detention designation in March of this year. Chen’s speciality involves using public seismological data to measure underground nuclear tests, notably studying North Korea’s past test blasts.
The Biden administration secured the release of three Americans from China in November 2024. An equal number of Chinese were released at the same time. The rare exchange saw the US ease its travel warning on visiting China and drop a “D” designation indicating a nation that wrongly detains visitors.
Lebson said the two cases and Thursday’s statement could see tougher travel warnings reimposed, adding that there seemed to be a disconnect between Beijing’s desire for more people-to-people exchanges and the potential chill these cases may have on tourists, academics and corporate executives.
Under the 2020 Levinson Act, a wrongful detainment designation is determined based on a set of criteria that may include innocence, whether the detention is designed to increase leverage on the US, how it relates to human rights activity and whether the legal proceedings violate due process standards.
A wrongful detention label moves the case from the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs – which handles routine traveller help – to the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, which has more tools and clout.
These may include drawing on dedicated negotiators who are authorised to work with high-ranking US and foreign officials, intelligence agencies and third parties to secure the detainees’ release; the use of public and political pressure, as seen with Trump’s May request; and the potential for financial sanctions, travel bans or diplomatic penalties.
Zack Cooper, an analyst with the conservative American Enterprise Institute and a former NSC official, said Thursday’s relatively short statement and its attribution to an assistant secretary may be an effort to balance their desire for a successful summit with a bid to gain the release of Americans.
In July, shortly after Trump made his appeal to Xi in May, China agreed to release Beijing Zion Church founder Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri after 266 days in detention.
“The administration might hope that they can use this moment ahead of the Xi visit to make progress on wrongfully detained American citizens, just as they did with Pastor Jin earlier this summer,” Cooper added.
These cases add to a long list of differences between the two nations involving strategic technology and rare earths restrictions, export bans, military chest thumping, tariffs and trade.


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Case adds friction weeks before Trump-Xi summit, with Washington pressing Beijing over Americans held in the country


Case adds friction weeks before Trump-Xi summit, with Washington pressing Beijing over Americans held in the country.


US designates academic Min Zin as ‘wrongfully detained’ in China

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Case adds friction weeks before Trump-Xi summit, with Washington pressing Beijing over Americans held in the country

Case adds friction weeks before Trump-Xi summit, with Washington pressing Beijing over Americans held in the country