
A senior Chinese diplomat met with officials from the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) on Thursday following the group’s recent capture of Chipwe, a town in northern Kachin State noted for having some of the largest rare-earth mining operations outside of China.
According to sources, Deng Xijun, the Chinese foreign ministry’s special envoy for Asian affairs, met KIO chair Gam Shawng and other officials in Yingjiang, a town in China’s Yunnan Province located near Laiza, the KIO’s headquarters in Myanmar.
The meeting came just two weeks after the KIO’s armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), captured key outposts in northern Kachin State’s Chipwe Township previously controlled by a Border Guard Force allied with Myanmar’s military junta.
Deng reportedly urged the. . .