Chinese security officers have arrested an American citizen who studies politics in Myanmar, an authoritarian nation on China’s southwest border, and accused him of endangering national security, according to people with knowledge of the arrest.

据知情人士透露，中国安全官员逮捕了一名研究缅甸政治的美国公民，并指控其危害国家安全。缅甸是与中国西南边境接壤的一个威权国家。

The U.S. citizen, U Min Zin, was arrested in early June, the people said. He disappeared on June 3 while in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, which borders Myanmar. American diplomats are aware of the arrest.

知情人士称，这位名为敏辛(U Min Zin)的美国公民于6月上旬被捕。他于6月3日在邻近缅甸的云南省省会昆明失踪。美国外交官已知悉此事。

It is rare for China to arrest a U.S. citizen on charges of a national security crime, and the action against Mr. Min Zin takes place as President Trump and Xi Jinping, China’s leader, are trying to establish a type of partnership between the two nations.

中国以危害国家安全罪名逮捕美国公民的情况并不常见，而针对敏辛的这一行动正值特朗普总统与中国领导人习近平试图建立某种伙伴关系之际。

Mr. Min Zin is a political scientist and executive director of a policy research group originally based in Yangon, the former capital of Myanmar. The group has worked from different locations since a 2021 military coup in Myanmar. Over the years, he has spent time in both the United States and his home country of Myanmar, once known as Burma, and he now lives in Thailand.

敏辛是一位政治学家，也是一家政策研究机构的执行主任。该机构总部最初设在缅甸旧都仰光，2021年军事政变后在不同地点开展工作。多年来，他曾在美国和他的祖国缅甸两地居住，目前居住在泰国。

He has written essays on Myanmar politics for the opinion section of The New York Times, Foreign Policy and other news organizations.

他曾为《纽约时报》观点版、《外交政策》及其他新闻机构撰写关于缅甸政治的评论文章。

“We are aware of reports regarding a U.S. citizen detained in China,” the State Department said in a statement Thursday when asked about the arrest. “Whenever a U.S. citizen is detained, we work to provide the appropriate consular assistance.” It declined to give further details, citing federal privacy law.

周四在被问及此次逮捕时，美国国务院在一份声明中表示：“我们获悉了有关一名美国公民在中国被拘留的报告。每当有美国公民被拘留时，我们都会努力提供适当的领事协助。”出于联邦隐私法的规定，国务院拒绝提供更多细节。

Mr. Min Zin’s wife did not reply to an emailed request for comment. The Chinese embassy in Washington had no immediate comment.

敏辛的妻子未对电子邮件形式的置评请求做出回复。中国驻华盛顿大使馆未立即置评。

The arrest took place less than three weeks after President Trump attended a summit and state banquet in Beijing hosted by Mr. Xi. Mr. Trump praised Mr. Xi during the meetings and in interviews afterward, and he said he aimed to form a “G2” partnership with China, emphasizing cooperation rather than competition.

此次逮捕发生前不到三周，特朗普总统刚出席了北京峰会以及由习近平主持的国宴。特朗普在会谈中及随后的采访中对习近平大加赞赏，并表示他的目标是与中国建立“G2”伙伴关系，强调合作而非竞争。

Mr. Trump has long admired Mr. Xi, and he moved to accommodate China after its government retaliated against the United States during a trade war that Mr. Trump started last year.

特朗普长期以来一直赞赏习近平，去年由他发起的贸易战遭到中国政府反制后，他转而采取了迁就的姿态。

China’s arrest of another U.S. citizen and its use of a national security charge complicates that rapprochement. One American official said that although Chinese officials insist they are serious about trying to establish what the two governments call “constructive strategic stability,” this arrest undermines that effort.

中国逮捕又一名美国公民并使用危害国家安全罪名使这一和解进程复杂化。一名美国官员表示，尽管中国官员坚称他们对于试图建立两国政府所谓的“建设性战略稳定”是认真的，但这次逮捕破坏了这一努力。

China keeps about 200 American citizens under some form of detention, said John Kamm, the founder of the Dui Hua Foundation, which advocates for prisoner releases in China. Some Americans are imprisoned on drug charges, while others are prevented from leaving the country on “exit bans,” often because of commercial or financial disputes.

倡导释放中国在押人员的对话基金会创始人康原(John Kamm)表示，中国对大约200名美国公民采取了某种形式的拘留。一些美国人因涉毒罪名被判刑，另一些人则因商业或财务纠纷而受到“出境限制”，无法离境。

Mr. Kamm said he was unaware of any American currently held on a charge of endangering national security. Kai Li, who was convicted in 2016 of espionage, was among three Americans released by China in 2024 as part of a prisoner swap arranged by the Biden administration. Another American convicted of spying, Sandy Phan-Gillis, was expelled from the country in 2017 after having been detained for more than two years.

康原表示，据他所知，目前没有其他美国人因危害国家安全罪名被拘留。作为拜登政府安排的囚犯交换的一部分，曾于2016年因间谍罪被定罪的李凯是2024年被中国释放的三名美国人之一。另一名被判决犯有间谍罪的美国人潘婉芬(Sandy Phan-Gillis)在被拘禁两年多后，于2017年被驱逐出境。

Mr. Kamm said he had heard of an American citizen detained two months ago on accusations of an economic crime.

康原说，他听说两个月前有一名美国公民因涉嫌经济犯罪被拘留。

It is unclear why Chinese security officers in Yunnan Province arrested Mr. Min Zin. There was once a sizable presence of people from Myanmar in Yunnan, but that has dwindled since the pandemic. China has at times provided aid to some armed groups from Myanmar that operate on both sides of the border. But it is unclear whether Mr. Min Zin was involved in research or activities involving those people.

目前尚不清楚云南省的中国安全官员为何逮捕敏辛。云南曾有大量缅甸人聚集，但自疫情以来人数已有所减少。中国有时会向在边境两侧活动的一些缅甸武装组织提供援助。目前尚不清楚敏辛是否参与了涉及这些人员的研究或活动。

The Chinese Communist Party and government have a close relationship with the military-linked government that rules Myanmar. Mr. Min Zin wrote extensively on China’s role in the Myanmar government.

中国共产党和政府与统治缅甸的军方背景政府保持着密切关系。敏辛就中国在缅甸政府中所扮演的角色撰写了大量文章。

A Nepali research group said in an online post in May that Mr. Min Zin was scheduled to be a speaker at a policy and geopolitics forum in Nepal later this month. The speaker biography says his research group founded in Yangon, the Institute for Strategy and Policy Myanmar, is “dedicated to promoting democratic leadership and strengthening civic participation in Myanmar.”

一家尼泊尔研究机构在5月的一则网络帖子中表示，敏辛原定于本月晚些时候在尼泊尔举行的政策与地缘政治论坛上担任发言人。发言人简介称，他在仰光创立的机构“缅甸战略与政策研究所”“致力于在缅甸促进民主领导力并加强公民参与”。

The biography also says he is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of California at Berkeley, and his research interests include civil-military relations, democratization and ethnic conflicts. His LinkedIn page says he has a master’s degree in political science from Berkeley, which he attended from 2010 to 2016.

简介还介绍称，他是加利福尼亚大学伯克利分校的政治学博士候选人，其研究兴趣包括军政关系、民主化和民族冲突。他的领英页面显示，他拥有伯克利分校的政治学硕士学位，并于2010年至2016年在该校就读。

The handful of opinion pieces he has written for The New York Times have focused on those topics. Several were published soon after the Tatmadaw, the military of Myanmar, overthrew the elected government in early 2021.

他为《纽约时报》撰写的为数不多的几篇评论文章主要集中在这些主题上。其中几篇是在缅甸军方于2021年初推翻民选政府后不久发表的。

In an essay in June 2021, he said that the military and the opposition appeared to be locked in an “intolerable stalemate,” and that the Tatmadaw “appears to believe it can force its way to and through a next election by way of brutal crackdowns, by dissolving the once-ruling National League for Democracy and by threatening to imprison Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s former de facto leader, for the rest of her life.”

在2021年6月的一篇文章中，他指出军方与反对派似乎陷入了“无法忍受的僵局”，并且缅甸军方“似乎认为自己可以通过残酷镇压、解散曾经执政的全国民主联盟，以及威胁终生监禁该国前事实上的领导人昂山素季等方式强行推进下一次选举。”

At the same time, he wrote, the anti-coup movement, which included Gen Z protesters and civil servants, “has been shifting tactics away from predominantly peaceful demonstrations to more violent kinds of resistance.”

与此同时他写道，由Z世代抗议者和公职人员组成的反政变运动“策略已经从主要是和平示威转向更具暴力性质的抵抗”。

What Mr. Min Zin observed and predicted then has unfolded with force, and Myanmar is now engulfed in a civil war. The Myanmar military carries out airstrikes on civilian areas using Chinese and Russian-made weapons.

敏辛当时所观察和预测的情况随后鲜明地展现出来，缅甸如今已陷入内战。缅甸军方使用中国和俄罗斯制造的武器对平民地区实施空袭。

In recent years, U.S. officials have pressed for the release of some American citizens held in China, as well as for the liberation of several prominent non-American prisoners: Jimmy Lai, a British citizen and newspaper founder imprisoned by the Hong Kong authorities; Jin Mingri, a Chinese pastor with the English name of Ezra; and Dong Yuyu, a Chinese journalist and former Harvard fellow convicted on espionage charges widely believed to be false.

近年来，美国官员曾敦促释放一些被中国关押的美国公民，并呼吁释放几位知名的非美国籍囚犯：被香港当局监禁的英国公民、报社创办人黎智英；英文名为Ezra的中国牧师金明日；以及因间谍罪名被定罪（人们普遍认为这一指控不实）的中国记者、前哈佛大学研究员董郁玉。

Mr. Trump has said he plans to host Mr. Xi in Washington around Sept. 24 for a reciprocal visit.

特朗普表示，他计划于9月24日前后在华盛顿接待习近平回访。

Mr. Kamm said he was not hopeful that the summits would lead to prisoner releases by China.

康原表示，他对首脑会晤促成中国释放囚犯不抱太大希望。

“Human rights is not a priority for the U.S. government now in its dealings with China,” he said. “I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t see any evidence to the contrary.”

“人权目前在美国政府同中国打交道时并不是优先事项，”他说。“我希望我是错的，但我没有看到任何相反的证据。”