Min Zin, United States/China
Posted September 8, 2026
Min Zin, an American citizen and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, is the co-founder and executive director of the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar (ISP-Myanmar). His research interests include civil-military relations, democratization, and ethnic conflicts. Min Zin’s writings and commentary on Burma have been featured across international publications and scholarly journals. Read more.
Case Information
On June 3, 2026, Chinese authorities arrested Min Zin, a scholar of political science, while he was traveling for academic purposes. He was detained upon arrival at the Kunming airport in Yunnan Province while traveling on a valid visa to attend an academic workshop at the invitation of a Chinese university. After being held incommunicado for over one week, Chinese authorities publicly accused him on June 12, 2026 of “espionage and endangering national security” but have not disclosed credible evidence to support that charge.
Publicly-available reporting indicates that while U.S. diplomatic personnel have had minimal consular access to Min Zin since his detention more than three months ago, his wife and teenage daughter, also U.S. citizens, have not been able to speak with him, and he has been denied access to his lawyer. He has been held in solitary confinement in an undeclared facility, under the system of Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL). The United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearance has concluded RSDL results in the systematic denial of due process, and is likely to result in ill treatment and coerced confessions. He is reportedly subjected to extensive daily interrogation without counsel or other fundamental protections, and held in conditions that do not meet minimum international standards.