Chinese authorities said they arrested UC Berkeley alumnus and Myanmar-born U.S. citizen U Min Zin earlier this month on suspicion of espionage and endangering China’s national security.
Min Zin is not currently enrolled at UC Berkeley, though he earned master’s degrees in Asian studies and political science and advanced to Ph.D. candidacy in 2011, according to campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore.
“We are aware of news reports regarding this matter,” Gilmore said in an email. “Our thoughts are with Min Zin and his family at this difficult time.”
The U.S. Department of State told The Daily Californian it is “engaged with Chinese officials to provide consular assistance.”
His studies were focused on politics in Myanmar, an authoritarian country on China’s southwest border, according to political science professor Jason Wittenberg, who knew Min Zin during his time at UC Berkeley.
Min Zin is a founder and director of the Institute for Strategy and Policy – Myanmar, a Myanmar-focused policy issue think tank.
“It took me completely by surprise,” Wittenberg said. “He was working on things related to the dictatorship in Myanmar, (also known as) Burma, so I don’t know how that involves China.”
However, Min Zin’s publications included articles on China’s influence in Myanmar. Myanmar’s military regime holds close ties with China, which has remained one of the country’s largest trading partners and closest diplomatic allies — a relationship that intensified after the 2021 coup.
As a student activist in Burma’s 1988 democracy movement, Min Zin was kicked out of high school, causing him to go into hiding to avoid arrest. He fled to Thailand in 1997, where he worked as a journalist, according to a Jakarta Post report from 2008.
Min Zin has written for major publications including The New York Times and Foreign Policy. According to the Los Angeles Times, he applied to UC Berkeley at age 35.
According to Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian, Min Zin was detained June 3 in the city of Kunming in Yunnan province, which borders Myanmar. Lin confirmed that the Chinese government had informed the U.S. consulate general in Guangzhou of Min Zin’s arrest.
U.S. consular officers have visited Min Zin, the Department of State told the Daily Cal.
According to an International Business Times report, Min Zin was in Kunming, China, to attend an event at a university. The report notes that in recent years China has arrested several foreigners, including scholars, under the country’s broadly worded national security and espionage laws, prompting concerns among Western governments regarding citizen protections when traveling to China.
Chinese officials have not provided any further details regarding the arrest.