Under pressure in Shan State, Myanmar junta takes aim at China

Relations between Myanmar’s military junta and its most important international ally appear to have reached an historic low point as the regime continues to suffer major losses to an alliance of ethnic armed groups in the country’s northeast. The first sign of the growing strain came on November 8, when the head of the coup regime, Min Aung Hlaing, alluded to “Chinese-made drones” during an emergency meeting of the National Defence Security Council held to discuss Operation 1027, the anti-junta offensive launched by the Brotherhood Alliance in northern Shan State on October 27. According to state-run newspapers, he also said that the offensive would not have been possible without at least the tacit support of China, the country that has long shielded successive Myanmar regimes from the full impact of international censure. Since then, the beleaguered military council has gone even further in blaming China for its troubles. On Monday, regime spokesperson Zaw Min Tun characterised the ongoing offensive along the Chinese border as an act of “aggression,” departing from the military’s usual practice of labelling the activities of armed insurgents as “terrorist” attacks. “The [military] is now conducting a counteroffensive against the aggression by the invaders. Since independence, it has been striving towards national sovereignty and security,” junta-run newspapers quoted him as saying. A group of protesters in Yangon shout anti-Chinese slogans in front of the Chinese embassy in Yangon on November 18 (Screenshot of a video posted online by pro-army groups) This came after a rare protest was held on Saturday in front of the Chinese embassy in Yangon. The angry mob in attendance shouted anti-Chinese slogans and accused China of pitting Myanmar’s ethnic groups against each other. Some carried signs that read: “We demand China to stop assisting in terrorist activities in northern Myanmar,” “Oppose the stooges of foreign actors,” and “Those who interfere in internal affairs are our enemies.” The protest was led by a few Buddhist monks and thugs from Ma Ba Tha, a military-backed ultranationalist group that played a leading role in the numerous pro-army rallies and anti-Muslim protests during Myanmar’s brief democratic period before the 2021 coup. A similar group of about a hundred protesters also turned out at a major intersection in Naypyitaw on Monday, shouting slogans such as “Oppose those who encroach on national sovereignty.” Buddhist monks lead a protest in Naypyitaw on November 20 against “foreign interference” in the recent military offensive by armed ethnic groups in northern Shan State (Myanmar Now) Such demonstrations could not have taken place without the explicit permission of the regime, which has brutally cracked down on all other protests in the country since seizing power. The members of the Brotherhood Alliance—the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, and the Arakan Army—say they launched Operation 1027 to achieve greater autonomy in their respective ethnic regions and as part of a nationwide armed resistance movement against the military. But they also labelled it as an effort to fight against online scam centres, mainly targeting people in China, being run from junta-controlled towns on the China-Myanmar border. Of these groups, the MNDAA represents the Chinese-speaking Kokang ethnic group. Chin Shwe Haw, which was one of the first towns to fall to the alliance, is on the Chinese border and has a largely Kokang population. Laukkai, where the offensive is currently focussed, is the junta-controlled administrative centre of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone. The Chinese government, which has identified Laukkai as a nerve centre for wide-reaching, illegal online gambling and predatory scam operations, has increased pressure on junta-backed Kokang authorities in recent months to crack down on this activity. In a bid to appease Beijing, the regime has since handed over thousands of suspected scammers to the Chinese authorities. But even this has done little to repair the frayed relationship between the two sides. For its part, the MNDAA has shut down a number of illegal operations in Chin Shwe Haw since capturing the town, and it has vowed to do the same in Laukkai once it comes under its control. The group also rejects the regime’s way of describing its actions. “We are not waging an act of aggression since we are an indigenous ethnic group of Myanmar. Nor is it an internal conflict among our Kokang group as portrayed by the military junta,” said MNDAA spokesperson Kyaw Naing.

Under pressure in Shan State, Myanmar junta takes aim at China

In the latest sign of its strained relationship with its closest ally, the regime has allowed rare protests targeting the Chinese government

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