Min Aung Hlaing, China’s vice foreign minister meet in Naypyidaw

By Admin 06 Jan 2024

DMG Newsroom
6 January 2024, Sittwe

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and China’s vice foreign minister Sun Weidong met in Naypyidaw on Friday, discussing peace and stability along the border.

The two discussed cooperation between the two neighbours and ongoing efforts and future plans for ensuring peace and stability along the border.

Junta Home Affairs Ministry Lieutenant-General Yar Pyae and China’s Public Security Minister Xiaohong also held online talks on Friday, and discussed border stability, security and combating transnational crimes.

Myanmar’s border trade with China has been halted for nearly two months as the regime has lost control of border towns and routes crucial for trade with China since the Brotherhood Alliance launched an offensive known as Operation 1027 in late October.

Politician U Pe Than said the talks between the regime and Beijing will have no impact on the escalating offensive by the Brotherhood Alliance.

“China engages not only with the regime but with revolutionary organisations to protect its interests. It has met the regime because it is concerned that Chinese-invested projects in Myanmar will be affected by the fighting,” said U Pe Than.

“The regime also relies on China, hoping that China will help it salvage the situation. China may hold talks with [ethnic] armed groups. But the fighting will not stop,” he added.

The Chinese vice foreign minister’s visit to Naypyidaw followed an artillery strike from the Myanmar military that resulted in the injury of Chinese citizens in Yunnan Province, which borders Myanmar’s Shan State.

Stray artillery shells from fighting in Laukkai, in the Kokang Self-Administered Zone in northern Shan State, landed in the Chinese city of Nanshan in Yunnan Province on January 3, wounding five Chinese citizens and angering Beijing.

The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) on Friday gained control of Laukkai as China’s vice foreign minister met Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyidaw. The Brotherhood Alliance said all junta troops have been driven out of Laukkai, the capital of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone.

Mediated by China, the regime and the Brotherhood Alliance met two times in December, and there have been reports that they are meeting for a third time later this month.

Political analyst U Than Soe Naing said: “As [the MNDAA] has seized Laukkai, the third meeting is unlikely. The Brotherhood Alliance will probably target Lashio [the capital of northern Shan State] after seizing Laukkai. The liberation of Laukkai will lead to liberation of Shan State, then liberation of the whole country. The fighting will not cease.”

The MNDAA has seized Chin Shwe Haw, Kunlong, Pansai, Monekoe, Konkyan and Laukkai towns, and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), also a Brotherhood Alliance member, has seized Namkham, Namhsan, Mong Tung, Namtu, Mong Long and Mong Ngaw towns.