Min Aung Hlaing asks China to help restore border stability

By Admin 06 Nov 2024

DMG Newsroom
6 November 2024, Mrauk-U

Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing has sought China’s help to restore stability along the border and facilitate trade between Myanmar and China’s Yunnan Province.

The junta boss, who is on his first visit to China since Myanmar’s 2021 coup, met Wang Ning, a member of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee and Secretary of the Yunnan Provincial Party Committee in Kunming, on Tuesday.

“Only with peace and stability in border areas, trade can be increased, and economic connectivity can be deepened,” Min Aung Hlaing was quoted as saying by junta-run media.

Armed conflicts at the border are impacting bilateral trade, said the junta boss, who accused anti-regime groups of ignoring his offer for peace talks and disrupting border stability.

Anti-regime groups have made the international community misjudge his regime and China while exploiting the situation to achieve political and military gains, and facilitating illegal trade, said Min Aung Hlaing.

The junta boss called on the Chinese government to stop those acts that he said serve the interests of no one in China or Myanmar, and rather are harmful to regional stability.

One political and military analyst said: “The military council [Min Aung Hlaing] went to China to make [Beijing] put more pressure on ethnic armed groups. Min Aung Hlaing raised points that he thinks might please China. China can benefit a lot from the businesses [border trade and investments in Myanmar] halted by armed conflicts.”

There are five major border trade camps — namely Chin Shwe Haw, Kanpiketi, Lwelgel, Muse and Kengtung — along the Chinese-Myanmar border in Kachin and Shan states. Ethnic armed organisations have seized the Lwelgel, Muse and Chin Shwe Haw border trade camps.

China has been putting pressure on ethnic armed organisations based near the Chinese border to stop fighting the regime and engage in talks as Operation 1027, which resumed in June, saw the regime losing more territory. Last month, it closed border crossings with these groups, restricting the flow of vital items into their territories.