Over 300 junta soldiers who fled Kanpiketi after the Kachin Independence Army’s (KIA) seized the border town last week were handed back to the regime by China in Muse, northern Shan State, on Saturday.
People’s Liberation Army officers handed the 302 soldiers back to the Myanmar military at the Man Wein border gate, which borders Jiegao in China’s Yunnan Province.
Defying pressure from China, the KIA captured the Kanpiketi on November 20. The ethnic army has now seized most of Kachin State, except for the capital Myitkyina and surrounding area. Among its conquests are rare earth mines near the Chinese border.
Hundreds of junta troops deployed in Kanpiketi fled over the border to China on the day the KIA launched its offensive, according to sources.
The KIA cut off Kanpiketi in June after capturing Sadone town on the border trade route, but temporarily halted its advance amid pressure from China, sources told The Irrawaddy.
In mid-October KIA troops attacked the junta-aligned Border Guard Force (BGF) in Sin Kyaing village on the road to Kanpiketi, prompting junta and BGF officers to flee over the border. Junior officers and soldiers eventually joined the retreat, leaving the way open for KIA troops to capture Kanpiketi, a source close to the KIA told The Irrawaddy.
The KIA has transported weapons seized in Kanpiketi to its Laiza headquarters, the source said.
The town’s fall came after China sent foreign minister Wang Yi to Naypyitaw in August, before launching a live-fire drill near the border. Beijing also closed border crossings, cutting off supplies of food and fuel to ethnic armies while dispatching special envoy Deng Xijun to negotiate with the KIA, Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), and United Wa State Army.
China threatened the TNLA with punitive action if it failed to stop fighting the regime. The MNDAA, responding to Chinese pressure, announced it would cease fighting and would not cooperate politically or militarily with the civilian National Unity Government. China is also pressuring the MNDAA to return Lashio to the regime.
The talks between the Chinese special envoy and the KIA resulted in a heated dispute, sources told The Irrawaddy. China subsequently closed border crossings with KIA-controlled territory, except in Pangwa, the site of rare earth mines.
China reopened the Kanpiketi crossing earlier this month but closed it again following the KIA’s advance.
“The KIA has shown that it will do what it needs to do no matter what China says,” a military analyst commented. “It has shown that China cannot interfere in events occurring in Myanmar’s territory and that it is not under China’s influence.”
Political analysts said that China will now have to negotiate with the KIA to secure trade and imports through the border. This is expected to result in China easing its pressure on the ethnic army.
“China will have to hold talks with the KIA rather than Myanmar’s military if it wants to open Kachin border crossings, especially for the goods it wants to import like jade, timber, and rare earths. If it wants to buy them, it will have to sell its goods to the KIA,” said an analyst.
The KIA has invited China for talks on cross-border trade.
Trade through the Kanpiketi border crossing was valued at US$ 52 million in the first four months of 2024, according to the junta-run Commerce Ministry.
The KIA has seized the major border trade towns of Lweljel and Kanpiketi, along with nine smaller gates in Pangwa, Laiza, Maijayang and other towns.
The five official China-Myanmar border trade crossings are Lwelgel and Kanpiketi in Kachin, Muse and Chin Shwe Haw in northern Shan State, and Kengtun-Mongla in eastern Shan State. Most are now controlled by anti-regime groups but have been closed by China in support of the military regime.
