Updated
Updated · Fox News · Aug 20
Rubio Designates Min Zin Wrongfully Detained in China Ahead of Sept. 24 Trump-Xi Meeting
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Aug 20

Rubio Designates Min Zin Wrongfully Detained in China Ahead of Sept. 24 Trump-Xi Meeting

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 20

Summary

  • Nearly 11 weeks after his June 3 detention, the State Department elevated Min Zin’s case, saying the U.S. scholar was seized on arrival in Yunnan after traveling to a Chinese government-invited academic conference.
  • State Department officials said Zin was detained at the airport, repeatedly interrogated and held in isolation, with his family and colleagues unable to locate him for 48 hours.
  • China later told the U.S. Embassy he was under criminal investigation for endangering national security; Beijing has publicly accused him of spying and rejects the U.S. concept of wrongful detention.
  • The designation makes Zin one of two U.S. citizens Washington considers wrongfully detained in China and is expected to draw added diplomatic resources as Xi prepares for a Sept. 24 White House visit.

Insights

Why would China invite an American scholar to a conference only to arrest him for espionage weeks before a Trump-Xi summit?
Could the secretive detention of a Myanmar policy expert in Yunnan trigger a new diplomatic crisis between Washington and Beijing?