China on Friday confirmed that it has arrested a US citizen on suspicion of espionage, just weeks after a visit by US President Donald Trump.
Authorities have taken “criminal coercive measures” against the man who is believed to be posing a danger to national security, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian in Beijing.
He said China had informed the US Consulate in Guangzhou of the step, adding that the man's rights were being respected.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that a US citizen had been arrested in early June on accusations of "endangering national security," citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
According to the report, the man disappeared on June 3 in the city of Kunming, in the province of Yunnan in south-western China that borders Myanmar.
The Times reported that the US citizen studies Myanmar politics and is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of California at Berkeley.
The Times said the political scientist was the executive director of a policy research group originally based in Yangon, Myanmar, and had written "essays on Myanmar politics" for the newspaper and other outlets.
On the same day as confirming the arrest, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced a four-day visit to China by Myanmar's President Min Aung Hlaing, starting Monday.
US President Donald Trump visited China from May 13-15 in what was the first visit by a US president since Trump's previous visit in 2017.
Prior to this year's trip, US activists had called on Trump to bring up the fate of US citizens imprisoned in China.
