{"id":358648,"date":"2026-06-13T00:33:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T00:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/358648\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T00:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T00:33:07","slug":"uc-berkeley-phd-candidate-arrested-in-china-on-espionage-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/358648\/","title":{"rendered":"UC Berkeley PhD candidate arrested in China on espionage allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"

A UC\u00a0Berkeley<\/a> doctoral\u00a0candidate and prominent Myanmar scholar has been arrested in China on suspicion of espionage, according to Chinese officials.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed Friday that U Min Zin, a U.S. citizen and the executive director of the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar, had been detained after authorities accused him of \u201cengaging in espionage activities that endanger China\u2019s national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

The confirmation came during a regularly scheduled news conference in Beijing, when Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Chinese authorities had notified the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou about the arrest, according to reporting by\u00a0the New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Min Zin, who studies China\u2019s influence in Myanmar and Southeast Asia, is also a doctoral student at the UC Berkeley, according to the\u00a0Centre for Social Innovation and Foreign Policy. UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore told SFGATE via email that they are \u201cseeking to verify\u201d the doctoral\u00a0candidate\u2019s affiliation with the university.<\/p>\n

A longtime advocate for democracy in Myanmar, Min Zin emerged as a student activist during the country\u2019s 1988 pro-democracy movement. After fleeing military rule, he later settled in the United States, pursued academic work and eventually returned to Myanmar following political reforms. He currently leads\u00a0ISP-Myanmar<\/a>, a Thailand-based research organization that examines Myanmar\u2019s politics and China\u2019s role in the country, including Beijing\u2019s economic, diplomatic and strategic interests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of State acknowledged reports of the detention but declined to discuss the case in detail.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware of reports regarding a U.S. citizen detained in China,\u201d a State Department official said in a statement provided to SFGATE. \u201cThe Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans. Whenever a U.S. citizen is detained, we work to provide the appropriate consular assistance. However, under federal privacy law, we are unable to comment further at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Times reported that Min Zin was detained in early June while traveling through the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming, near the border with Myanmar.\u00a0Agence France-Presse<\/a>, citing multiple sources, reported that he had been attending a meeting in Kunming before his arrest at the airport on June 3.<\/p>\n

Few details about the allegations have been made public. China\u2019s government has not released additional information about the case beyond the accusation that Min Zin endangered national security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A UC\u00a0Berkeley doctoral\u00a0candidate and prominent Myanmar scholar has been arrested in China on suspicion of espionage, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144,1692],"class_list":["post-358648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-sfgnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}