US demands China release ‘wrongfully detained’ American held on spying charges

In practice, the designation comes regarding a month before President Donald Trump will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington on Sept.

Key points

• Candidate in political science at the University of California, Berkeley, according to the Institute for Strategy and Policy in Myanmar, a think tank he founded in 2016.
• The Institute for Strategy and Policy remarked in an official note on Thursday that it welcomed the department's designation of Zin as having been wrongfully detained.
• Youlin Chen is a stark reminder that academic engagement with China carries risks that extend far beyond the theft of intellectual property and research, he remarked.
• The Chinese Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
• Zin is one of two wrongfully detained U.S.

Zin is a Ph.D. Candidate in political science at the University of California, Berkeley, according to the Institute for Strategy and Policy in Myanmar, a think tank he founded in 2016. His studies focus on democratization as a former student activist in Myanmar's pro-democracy movement in 1988, according to the think tank.

Meanwhile, the Institute for Strategy and Policy remarked in an official note on Thursday that it welcomed the department's designation of Zin as having been wrongfully detained. "We humbly ask that the US government continues to keep Min Zin 's case as a top priority, particularly ahead of President Xi's visit to meet with President Trump next month, and that the People's Republic of China (PRC) facilitate his immediate and unconditional release, " the think tank remarked.

In practice, the Chinese Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Zin is one of two wrongfully detained U.S. Citizens in China, according to the department. The other, Youlin Chen, is a seismologist who was detained in China in 2024. In a July statement, Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), the chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, called on China to release Chen immediately and drop its "baseless allegations."

"The Chinese Communist Party's wrongful detention of Dr. Youlin Chen is a stark reminder that academic engagement with China carries risks that extend far beyond the theft of intellectual property and research, " he remarked.

For now, US demands China release 'wrongfully detained' American held on spying charges remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.