WORLD NEWS | China backs military-ruled Myanmar: report

Beijing [China]April 2 (ANI): Bertil Lintner writes in Global Asia that China cannot abandon its “weak” neighbor Myanmar because it provides Beijing with direct access to the Indian Ocean and also makes bypassing the disputed South China Sea a possible.

China sees Myanmar as a key link in Beijing’s foreign policy because it will have the potential to bypass the disputed and potentially fragile Strait of Malacca for gas exports and imports, oil and minerals, the authors said at the East Asia Foundation in South Korea.

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Since a coup in 2021, the Burmese military’s grip on the country has remained firm despite ongoing armed resistance. Earlier in 2020, a military junta staged a coup after Aung San Suu Kyi won the election. Since then, the West has imposed sanctions on Myanmar.

China has reemerged as a major geopolitical player in the country amid ongoing Western sanctions against the regime for obstructing the transition to democracy.

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According to the author, former Burmese minister Phan Chi first outlined the importance of Burma as an outlet to the Indian Ocean in an article in the “Beijing Review” as early as September 2, 1985.

Now known as the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), it aims to provide China with exports to Myanmar and, more importantly, to other regions. The route roughly follows gas and oil pipelines built in 2013 and 2017 from the coast of Myanmar to Yunnan.

Also planned is a high-speed rail link between Yunnan and Kyaukpyu, a deep-water port on the Bay of Bengal and a 1,600-hectare special economic zone for foreign trade.

China appears to want to provide a defensive umbrella, and this must be done by supporting a loyal Myanmar that depends on China for weapons, training, and other military cooperation. Internationally isolated in the decade following the brutal suppression of the 1988 National Democratic Uprising, Myanmar’s military has had to turn to China for military equipment.

China has also helped Myanmar upgrade its naval bases on the coast and islands of the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea. Some of these bases house Chinese-supplied radar systems, and it is reasonable to assume that China’s security services benefit from the resulting intelligence.

The U.S. pays little attention to Myanmar, preoccupied with the Ukraine crisis. The State Department saw the same in its statement issued on the second anniversary of the coup on January 31, in which Washington appeared to have outsourced the Burmese issue to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

“We welcome and support ASEAN’s central role in resolving the Myanmar crisis”, support efforts to “fully implement the five-point consensus of ASEAN”, and reiterate “support for the ASEAN Special Envoy to Myanmar and the UN Special Envoy to Myanmar”.

With the US preoccupied with global security concerns elsewhere, Myanmar is open to new Chinese infiltrations.

According to the authors, the Burmese military may be reluctant to rely on China for arms supplies again, but since the coup, China has supplied Burma with advanced electronic surveillance systems that are difficult for generals to obtain elsewhere, including equipped with facial recognition camera. Identification and license plate recognition technology.

According to Global Asia, citing industry sources, such sales will increase sharply in 2022, and Chinese suppliers will in some cases strip devices of visible branding to obscure the manufacturer and origin, which may make these companies in the United States. Complicating business in the U.S. and the U.S. The European Union imposes strict sanctions on entities dealing with Myanmar’s military junta.

China is the only external power with close ties to Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic armed resistance group. In late February, Deng Xijun, China’s special envoy to Myanmar, met with representatives of the Kachin Independence Army, the United Wa State Army, and the Shan National Democratic Alliance Army in the border area. (Arnie)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)