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U.S. State Department Designates American Scholar Min Zin as Wrongfully Detained in China

3 sources across 3 countries · Hong Kong · Japan · United States

Who reported this

  • South China Morning Post Hong Kong · Centre-right · Alibaba Group
  • The Japan Times Japan · Centre · News2u Holdings
  • Bloomberg United States · Centre · Bloomberg L.P. (Michael Bloomberg)

What the colours mean

  • Left
  • Centre-left
  • Centre
  • Centre-right
  • Right
  • A hatched block means the outlet is affiliated with, or controlled by, a state.

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The U.S. State Department has determined that Min Zin, an American political analyst and scholar, is being wrongfully detained in China. According to the State Department, Min Zin traveled to Yunnan, China, in June on the invitation of the Chinese government to attend an academic conference, where he was subsequently detained. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the determination following an extensive review of the circumstances. This formal designation shifts the case from a consular issue to one handled by the presidential office dealing with hostage affairs. The State Department noted that this is the second such designation involving China, following the case of seismologist Youlin Chen. The U.S. government has called for the release of all U.S. citizens who are arbitrarily detained or exit banned in China. The announcement comes weeks before a scheduled summit in Washington between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

How each side framed it

Centre
These outlets focused on the factual designation of the detention and the upcoming diplomatic meeting.
Centre-right
This outlet framed the event as an irritant that adds friction to the fraught bilateral relationship between the two nations.

Sources

100% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.