Myanmar’s military regime has declared Chinese New Year a national holiday amid renewed fighting in northeastern territory bordering China. The designation followed recent visits to Beijing by former president Thein Sein and deputy junta chief Soe Win.
This is the first time in Myanmar’s history that a foreign festival has been officially recognized as a public holiday, apart from global anniversaries like Christmas, Eid and New Year’s Day. Previously, public holidays in Myanmar only marked religious or national anniversaries, and traditional Karen New Year’s Day.
Successive junta leaders from Ne Win to Than Shwe neglected to add Chinese New Year to the calendar despite enjoying close ties with Beijing.
China brokered a ceasefire in mid-January after the junta suffered a military disaster in northern Shan State, with the ethnic Brotherhood Alliance seizing vast swathes of territory during three months of Operation 1027.
Beijing has however remained silent since the alliance restarted its offensive in late June, making significant gains.
Observers say the regime’s decision to recognize Chinese New Year is aimed at gaining favor with Beijing, in the hope it will intervene again to help halt the fighting.
The junta’s official explanation was that Chinese New Year is a public holiday in ASEAN neighbors and many other countries around the world.
“Myanmar wants to deepen the Pauk-Phaw relations with China,” according to the regime statement.
“Pauk-phaw” was coined in the 1950s to describe the supposedly friendly, close ties between China and Myanmar. The term is often translated as “fraternal”, but Myanmar expert David Steinberg says it “has a closer Chinese connotation of siblings from the same womb [and] was used uniquely for Myanmar.”
The Chinese Embassy in Yangon said in a statement that “various fields in Myanmar greatly value the Chinese New Year’s Day.”
China’s outgoing ambassador Chen Hai had proposed the official recognition to junta boss Min Aung Hlaing during the embassy’s Lunar New Year celebrations in February.
Min Aung Hlaing chose the occasion of Chen Hai’s departure on Monday to declare the new public holiday, which will be marked on January 29 from next year.
Observers commented that the move reflects an unprecedented level of dependence on Beijing in the 76 years since Myanmar gained independence.
Myanmar’s first prime minister, U Nu, forged a close friendship with his Chinese counterpart Zhou Enlai, promoting the Five Principles of Peaceful-Co-Existence, the Bandung Conference and the non-aligned movement. Despite several exchange visits, there is no record of the two discussing Chinese New Year as a public holiday in Myanmar.
When Ne Win nationalized businesses after his coup in 1962, Chinese firms and schools were not spared. Anti-Chinese riots over high food prices in 1967 saw bilateral relations deteriorate, with Ne Win recalling Myanmar’s ambassador and snubbing the anniversary of modern China’s founding. Relations only normalized after Beijing stopped supporting the Communist Party of Burma’s armed struggle.
After the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, Ne Win’s successors Saw Maung and Than Shwe relied heavily on China for economic, diplomatic and military support. However, they engaged with Chinese leaders on an equal footing, exchanging visits and fostering close ties.
Even ex-president Thein Sein, who recently met with China’s President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi during the 70th anniversary of the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-Existence in Beijing, boldly shelved the China-backed Myitsone Dam project in Kachin State while in office.
Myanmar’s current junta boss Min Aung Hlaing has not received the same level of respect from Beijing as his predecessors Saw Maung and Than Shwe, let alone Ne Win who openly demonstrated his rage at China.
Despite supporting the regime on the international stage, Beijing has not invited Min Aung Hlaing for a visit in the three years since his coup.
Operation 1027 has only strained relations further.
Following a string of military defeats in November, Min Aung Hlaing claimed that junta positions in northern Shan were being bombed mainly with China-made drones. Junta-backed nationalists then staged a protest outside the Chinese Embassy in Yangon, accusing Beijing of backing the Brotherhood Alliance.
By the time China brokered the ceasefire, the regime had lost dozens of towns in northern Shan, and the offensive had spread to Rakhine State in western Myanmar. The Arakan Army (AA), a Brotherhood Alliance member, has seized all of northern Rakhine and is advancing south.
With the alliance now entering northern Shan’s capital of Lashio, pushing south toward Mandalay’s Mogoke, and capturing the airport for Rakhine’s world-famous Ngapali Beach, the regime has chosen this moment to declare Chinese New Year a public holiday in Myanmar.
