Amid the fighting between the regime and ethnic armies in northern Shan State, junta Foreign Minister Than Swe met Sun Haiyan, deputy minister of the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in Kunming, Yunnan Province on Monday.
The two discussed closer cooperation to “promote peace and stability” along the border as well as in fighting the drug and arms trades, and online scam operations, junta media reported.
The meeting took place as the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) based on the Myanmar-China border is attacking Lashio, the capital of northern Shan State, where the Myanmar military’s Northeastern Command is based.
The regime has retaliated with three bombing raids on Laukkai, the town where the MNDAA headquarters is based, since early July, according to residents.
The Brotherhood Alliance, which includes the MNDAA, Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army, launched Operation 1027 in northern Shan State on Oct. 27 last year. The alliance swiftly captured 24 junta battalion headquarters and military command centers and hundreds of frontline bases, as well as about 20 towns and vital trade routes with China.
The offensive was halted on Jan. 10 after the alliance agreed to a China-brokered ceasefire with the regime. The offensive resumed in late June.
Though the MNDAA said on July 19 that it would halt the offensive until the end of July in response to a demand from China, fighting continues in Lashio.
A flurry of visits by junta officials since last month indicates China is playing an ever greater role in Myanmar’s issues.
In late June, former president and ex-general Thein Sein flew to Beijing at the invitation of the Chinese government to attend an event marking the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-Existence.
Thein Sein was pictured shaking hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping before holding talks with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi, who called him an “old friend”.
In early July, junta second-in-command Soe Win made his first official visit to China since the coup. Some junta ministers have also flown to China.
Than Swe met the CCP official as four political parties from Myanmar are visiting China at the invitation of the party.
Representatives of the four Myanmar parties—the military’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party, the People’s Party led by 88-Generation student leader Ko Ko Gyi, the Arakan Front Party (AFP) led by Dr. Aye Maung, and the Shan and Ethnic Democratic Party (SEDP) led by Sai Aik Pao—are currently on a one-week visit to China that started on Saturday.
The four parties have joined junta-organized peace talks and are participating in its electoral process.
Earlier this month, the regime declared Chinese New Year a national holiday in Myanmar in what observers say is an attempt to persuade China to intervene in the offensives by ethnic armies and their resistance allies in northern Shan State.
The Than Swe-Sun meeting is the first between the junta’s foreign minister and a Chinese liaison officer since the third plenary meeting of the CCP’s Central Committee pledged to build a “shared future” with the international community by upholding an independent and non-aligned foreign policy.
