China on Friday said it had arrested a U.S. citizen who researched Myanmar politics and accused him of espionage.
In a separate incident, on Thursday, authorities in Myanmar detained an American businessman who ran a security consultancy there, according to people who were briefed on the incident.
Min Zin, who was arrested in China, and Adam Castillo, who was detained in Myanmar, are well known among diplomats, journalists and analysts interested in Myanmar’s political situation.
Both also have been vocal commentators on China’s growing influence on Myanmar’s civil war, and they traveled periodically to Washington to share their views with policymakers and legislators.
Myanmar’s military generals have allied themselves more closely with Beijing since seizing power in 2021, and Myanmar’s top leader, a general accused of war crimes, is scheduled to travel next week to China, where he will meet with leader Xi Jinping.
There was no immediate evidence that the two arrests were coordinated or otherwise connected. It is unclear if the timing is coincidental.
Nonetheless, news of the detentions has spread panic among the community of people focused on Myanmar.
“We’re in a state of shock,” said a foreign businessman in Yangon, Myanmar, who had interacted regularly with Castillo and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals from the Myanmar authorities.
U.S. State Department officials said they were aware of reports regarding the detention of a citizen in China and a citizen in Myanmar but declined to provide more information, citing privacy considerations.
Min Zin, who holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of California at Berkeley, led a think tank, the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar, from a base in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. He was well connected in Washington and had visited last year.
He also traveled frequently to China for research and in early June had been in China’s southwest Yunnan province, which borders Myanmar, when he disappeared, according to friends and colleagues. U.S. officials are involved in efforts to secure his release, his friends said.
Lin Jian, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, confirmed Min Zin’s arrest at a news conference, saying that Min Zin was “suspected of spying and endangering China’s national security.” China notified the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou, Lin said.
It is unusual for China to arrest U.S. citizens on national security grounds. In 2024, China released three detained American citizens as part of a prisoner swap, two of whom had served years behind bars after being convicted of espionage.
Saw Zin Maung Soe, founder of the nonprofit CAN-Myanmar, said Min Zin’s arrest has created “a sense of insecurity” within the Myanmar diaspora.
Like many academics, Min Zin left Myanmar following the military coup in 2021.
In recent years, he had deepened his research into China’s efforts to assert control over Myanmar’s border regions, paying particular attention to Chinese influence over the sprawling rare earth mines in the embattled state of Kachin and Chinese state-backed infrastructure investments across Myanmar.
In an interview with The Washington Post earlier this year, he said Beijing increasingly views Myanmar as “China’s backyard.”
His arrest is likely to chill research into China’s role in Myanmar, Saw Zin Maung Soe said.
“While we already know they don’t tolerate issues regarding Tibet, Uyghurs or Tiananmen Square, we now have to question whether ‘Myanmar’ has also become part of that list,” Saw Zin Maung Soe said.
Castillo was detained at an airport while returning to Myanmar after travel in the United States, according to people briefed on the incident.
Castillo, who formerly ran the American Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar, engaged often with U.S. diplomats in the country and was part of the U.S. Embassy’s Overseas Security Advisory Council, which focuses on security affairs.
A vocal supporter of President Donald Trump and a self-described “MAGA die-hard,” he said in an interview with The Post earlier this year that he had met Trump administration officials in Washington to advocate for a more active U.S. policy in Myanmar.
He had raised the prospect of Myanmar’s massive rare earths deposits and China’s strategic interests in the country, he said.
More recently, Castillo had been promoting a book about his time in Myanmar. He was in the U.S. in April and May and had been posting on social media hours before his return to Myanmar on Thursday. In an interview in Washington several weeks ago, he had called China “the biggest winner” of Myanmar’s political turmoil.
Cape Diamond in Yangon, Myanmar, and Rudy Lu in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report.
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