Beijing keeping options open on conflict in Myanmar

President Xi Jinping of China is yet to express a clear opinion on the conflict in Myanmar’s Kokang Special Region in response to an open letter from Pheung Kya-shin, the former chairman of the region in the country’s northern Shan state. The letter was addressed to the Chinese diaspora, urging their support for armed struggle for the region’s autonomy, reports the New York-based citizen-sourced news website Boxun News Network.

Xi has said only that “a complicated problem requires a complicated solution,” without taking a concrete stand on the issue.

China’s Central Military Commission is still reviewing the situation in the Kokang region and has not ruled out the idea of sending in troops, according to Boxun.

The Kokang region was formerly a feudal vassal state and 90% of its population is ethnic Chinese. Although the PRC had no effective control over the region at the time and the Chinese Nationalists invaded Shan state in 1950, Mao Zedong formally ceded control of the region to Burma (later Myanmar) after the establishment of the PRC in a gesture of international friendship.

One Chinese general said the Myanmar border needs to be respected but that Beijing also needs to face reality and shouldn’t let the central government in Myanmar wipe the autonomous region out of existence.

The general said the PLA is several million strong, the largest standing army in the world, but it is yet to be officially deployed abroad. If it shrinks from intervening in an area like Kokang, right on China’s doorstep, it will undermine its international credibility.

Beijing is seeking to win over the government of Myanmar, a traditional ally, but if the US is successful in its recent attempts to woo Naypyidaw, China should support the Kokang people in order to balance the power of the central government, said a source who told Boxun’s Hong Kong affiliate that Beijing has been increasingly warm in its treatment of visiting ethnic minorities from the region.

The PLA plans to help ethnic minorities in Myanmar train soldiers, and military intervention in the region would allow China’s special forces a chance to gain experience in a familiar territory abroad in preparation for future conflicts, the source said.

Fang Fenghui, head of the PLA General Staff Department, recently visited the southwestern Chinese border province of Yunnan and requested that the Chengdu Military Region and its special forces unit research the possibility of intervening in Kokang, according to the website.
Posted in Asia
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