US-Myanmar scholar Min Zin has been officially designated as "wrongfully detained" by the US State Department after vanishing during a trip to China, in a case that has become a flashpoint just weeks before Presidents Trump and Xi meet at the White House. Min Zin, invited by Chinese academics to attend a conference in Yunnan, disappeared shortly after landing in Kunming on 3 June, with his family only learning two days later that he had been detained and accused of endangering national security. Officials believe his history as a Myanmar democracy activist and US-funded research may have attracted the attention of Chinese security services, despite his having previously attended similar academic events in China without incident.

Min Zin's family says he is being held under "residential surveillance," a practice condemned by the United Nations that permits authorities to detain suspects incommunicado for up to six months without charge. He is reportedly confined to a small, windowless, permanently lit room, questioned for four to six hours daily, and has had no contact with his family, though he has met a US consular official three times under Chinese supervision. The State Department has called the accusations against him "completely unfounded" and noted he is now one of two Americans it considers wrongfully detained in China, alongside Dr Youlin Chen, with the case expected to feature in Trump's talks with Xi on 24 September.