The attack on the Chinese Consulate in Mandalay on Oct. 18 was the second on a representative office of the Chinese government in Myanmar in their 74 years of diplomatic relations.
The first took place 57 years ago, when the embassy in Yangon was attacked during anti-Chinese riots in 1967.
The 1967 riots started as clashes between Burmese and ethnic Chinese students, who were influenced by China’s Cultural Revolution that began in 1966, and defied a government ban on wearing Mao Zedong badges or carrying copies of Mao’s “Little Red Book” to schools and universities.
Schools, homes and organizations associated with Chinese communities were attacked in the riots that lasted for several days and spread across the country.
A junior Chinese diplomat or analyst (depending which account you read) was stabbed to death when protesters raided the embassy on June 28.
At the same time, angry Chinese protesters pelted the Myanmar Embassy in Beijing with eggs, tomatoes, worn shoes and brooms. Daw Ohn Yi, the wife of then Myanmar ambassador to China, Sima Duwa Sinwa Naung, recalls in a book that this prompted embassy staff to build a makeshift staircase out of empty pine boxes in the backyard so they could escape to the neighboring Congolese Embassy in case the protest turned into a riot.
Some have suggested that the anti-Chinese riots were engineered by the military regime of General Ne Win to channel public anger away from acute rice shortages.
The riots led to the severing of diplomatic relations, which were not restored until the 1970s.
Ne Win’s Revolutionary Council government appointed former Quartermaster-General U Thein Maung new ambassador to China in October 1970, and China dispatched its new ambassador to Myanmar the following year.
In the latest attack on the Chinese diplomatic mission in Mandalay, there were no casualties and only minor damage to the building. It took place against a backdrop of increasing Chinese support for the military regime, which has been committing war crimes and grave human rights violations against civilians for more than three years. Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing plans to visit China in his first trip to the country since ousting the democratically elected National League for Democracy government.
The Chinese Embassy in Yangon has been the site of anti-China protests since 2014, when Myanmar people rallied against controversial China-backed projects like the Myitsone and Letpadaung Copper Mine. When the military staged its coup in 2021 and China failed to denounce it, anti-coup protesters staged demonstrations in front of the embassy.
Since then, anti-Chinese sentiment has been on the rise in Myanmar as a result of Beijing’s support for the regime on the international stage, and its cooperation with the regime in diplomatic, defense and economic areas. One of the junta’s key arms suppliers, China has publicly warned ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) based in northeastern Myanmar to halt their offensives against the regime or face harsher punitive actions.
But junta supporters and nationalist organizations also often accuse Beijing of backing those same EAOs in northeastern Myanmar, claiming that their military victory in northern Shan State would not have been possible without Chinese support.
Junta supporters and nationalists also staged anti-China protests before the grenade attack in Mandalay.
No group has yet claimed responsibility. The civilian National Unity Government, the military regime, and Beijing have all condemned the attack.
China on Monday “urged Myanmar to thoroughly investigate the attack” and “go all out to catch and punish the perpetrators in accordance with the law”. It called on the regime to “comprehensively step up security for Chinese consular offices, institutions, projects and personnel in Myanmar, and prevent this kind of incident from ever happening again.”
