China Denies US Claim of Wrongful Detention of Myanmar Analyst

China has rejected a claim by the United States that it is wrongfully detaining Min Zin, a US citizen and founder of the Institute for Strategy and Policy Myanmar (ISP-M). The US State Department designated Zin as wrongfully detained on Thursday, a move that makes securing his release a priority for Washington. China's foreign ministry spokesman, Lin Jian, refuted the claim on Friday, stating that China is governed by the rule of law and that there is no such thing as wrongful detention. Lin added that Zin is suspected of engaging in activities that endanger China's national security and violate Chinese law.

Zin was taken into custody on June 3 in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan. According to the State Department, Zin had traveled to the region to attend an academic conference at the invitation of the Chinese government. Zin's think tank researches the political, resource, and conflict dynamics of the civil war in Myanmar. Some of the institute's publications detail China's influence in the borderlands of Myanmar, where Beijing is accused of supporting armed factions that suit its national interests.

This diplomatic friction occurs shortly before Chinese leader Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit President Donald Trump in Washington. Zin is the second US citizen designated as wrongfully detained in China, following Youlin Chen, a seismologist arrested on espionage charges in 2024. Both center-left sources report the event as a diplomatic obstacle between the two nations, though they emphasize different details regarding the broader geopolitical context of Myanmar and the specific timeline of presidential summits.