Uc Berkeley Doctoral Student Accused Of Espionage, Chinese Authorities Says

Chinese authorities said they arrested a Northern California clever clever earlier this month, accusing him of espionage and endangering nationalist security.

U Min Zin was taken into custody connected June 3 astatine Kunming Changshui International Airport successful Yunnan Province, southwestern China, according to a New York Times report. Details astir nan apprehension are still unknown. Zin was walking for world purposes.

Earlier this week, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said successful a property convention that nan United States Consulate General successful Guangzhou was notified of Zin’s arrest, nan Times said.

The apprehension came aft President Trump met pinch Xi Jinping successful China to stabilize U.S.-China relations and manage disputes complete Taiwan, Iran, and location security.

“We are alert of reports regarding a U.S. national detained successful China,” a State Department charismatic told SFGATE. “Whenever a U.S. national is detained, we activity to supply nan due consular assistance. However, nether national privateness law, we are incapable to remark further astatine this time.”

Zin is simply a existent doctoral student astatine nan University of California, Berkeley, wherever he besides obtained a Master’s successful Political Science and Government, according to his LinkedIn page. His studies halfway astir Myanmar and Chinese overseas policy, according to his published works.

He is simply a laminitis and executive head of ISP Myanmar, a Thailand-based deliberation vessel focused connected Myanmar and location argumentation issues. Zin was besides a student activistic successful Burma’s 1988 populist movement, according to nan Journal of Democracy.

His activism sewage him kicked retired of precocious school, and he went into hiding to debar arrest, according to a 2008 interview. He fled to Thailand successful 1997 and spent years moving arsenic a journalist, later penning for publications specified arsenic nan New York Times and Foreign Policy.

“If I could return location today, I would go. I beryllium to Burma. My family is there. I want to dedicate myself to found bully publicity and education, because I recognize that acquisition is nan cardinal to processing Burma,” Zin told nan Jakarta Post successful 2008.

He applied to UC Berkeley astatine property 35. The assemblage did not instantly respond to a petition for comment, adding that “a registration cheque is underway.”