An American academic invited to a conference in China vanished into secret detention, a bad sign for anyone traveling to China on a U.S. passport and for already strained U.S.-China relations.

• Min Zin, a U.S. citizen and Burmese scholar, was seized at the airport in Kunming in June right after arriving for a three-day economic cooperation seminar.
• China accuses him of spying; his family and the U.S. government say the charges are baseless and that he was lured into the country and set up.
• He has been held alone for months in a tiny windowless room with lights on around the clock, two guards watching him, and daily interrogations.
• U.S. officials suspect his past as a Burmese student protest leader and his U.S.-funded research on Myanmar's democracy movement drew the attention of China's security services.
• The case lands as Trump prepares to host Xi in Washington, and detained Americans are expected to be on his list of complaints.

Outlook: Min Zin's release will likely become a bargaining chip at the Trump-Xi summit this month, while the case makes foreign scholars and investors warier of traveling to China.