For days, pro-democracy protesters in Burma have gathered almost daily outside the gates of the Chinese Embassy in Yangon to voice their protest against the Chinese government. The protesters held up placards written in English denouncing what they claimed was China’s support for the military coup in Myanmar earlier this month.
The placards carried slogans including “China, shame on you,” “Burma’s military dictatorship is made in China,” and “Save Burma, don’t support the dictator.
In January, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with a number of Burmese officials, including Senior General Ang Aung Hlaing, who seized power in the Feb. 1 coup d’état. During that meeting in Naypyidaw, Min Aung Hlaing, who wants to become president, allegedly repeatedly pointed to widespread fraud in last November’s elections that led to Aung San Suu Kyi’s rise to power.
In response to the pressure, Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Chen Hai said Beijing “did not know in advance that there would be a political change in Myanmar” and said rumors that China had flown in technicians and troops to help the military consolidate its rule were “absurd.
“The Myanmar-China Business Chamber of Commerce also issued a public statement denying the claim that several Chinese planes “recently arrived in Myanmar, mainly to transport technicians,” saying that those flights between China and Myanmar “were normal cargo flights carrying seafood and other import and export goods. They are normal cargo flights carrying seafood and other import and export goods, and the information on the Internet is pure rumor.”
Speculation about Beijing’s support for Burma’s military forces began after China allegedly refused to condemn the coup.
At a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on Feb. 12, both China and Russia said they “opposed the convening of the meeting.” Chinese Ambassador Chen Xu said the international community should “respect Myanmar’s sovereignty, political independence, territorial integrity and national unity,” among other things.
On Feb. 3, China and Russia blocked a UN Security Council statement condemning the Burmese military, and after the Feb. 1 coup, Chinese official media called it a “major cabinet reshuffle.
Deutsche Welle said, “One notes that Chinese officials avoided using the term ‘military coup’ and instead said ‘massive government reshuffle’; the Chinese government did not issue a condemnation of the sudden dismissal of a democratically elected government. This is also in line with Beijing’s consistent policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.”
Einar Tangen, a Beijing-based political analyst, told Al Jazeera that “Beijing likes Aung San Suu Kyi” and believes that her economic and trade policies could make Myanmar a “bastion of stability” in Southeast Asia. ; Still, Beijing is reluctant to condemn the junta “because China has an ironclad rule —- not to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, lest it face international criticism for its own policies on Hong Kong and Xinjiang.”
One protester’s sign said, “If it’s an internal affair, why are you helping the military?”
The relationship between China and the Burmese military regime has a long history. Because of international sanctions, Burma’s previous military regime has been forced to rely on neighboring China to buy weapons from China that are embargoed by other countries, Deutsche Welle said.
Edith Mirante, director of the Information Project on Human Rights and the Environment in Burma, told Al Jazeera that China was the seller of weapons purchased by the Burmese military when both Europe and the United States imposed arms embargoes on Burma starting in the 1960s, when Burma was one of the poorest countries in the world and “obviously China could do whatever it wanted there “
At the Time, the military government was “so desperate for foreign currency” that they opened Burma’s closed economy to foreign investment and gave Chinese companies logging concessions that led to the destruction of large swaths of forest in northern Burma, Millant said. “It was a terrible scramble for resources,” she said.
Now, U.S. President Joe Biden has signed an executive order on the 10th of this month announcing sanctions against senior Burmese military generals, including the commander-in-chief of the Burmese Defense Force, Min Aung Hlaing, and freezing more than $1 billion in Burmese assets in the United States.
The UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nada Al-Nashif, condemned the arrests and multiple disappearances of Myanmar’s Senior Minister of State Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint, and more than 350 officials, activists, journalists, monks and students.
The special session of the UN Human Rights Council adopted by consensus a resolution co-authored by the UK and the EU calling for the “immediate and unconditional release of all arbitrarily detained persons.
This military coup has brought the country’s recent 10-year experiment in democracy to a halt; whether Myanmar will return to the harsh military rule that once lasted nearly 50 years has become a global Southeast Asian mystery.
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