Beijing said Tuesday (November 19, 2024) the head of a Myanmar ethnic minority armed group had come to China for “medical care”, after news reports in its war-torn neighbour said he had been arrested on Chinese orders.

China is a major ally and arms supplier of Myanmar’s ruling junta, but is also thought to maintain ties with ethnic minority armed groups that hold territory along the countries’ shared border where fighting often flares up.

Local media in Myanmar reported this week that Chinese authorities had arrested Peng Deren, the head of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), one of the strongest Myanmar rebel groups.

Asked to confirm the reports at a regular press conference on Tuesday, Beijing’s foreign ministry said Peng had “previously applied to come to China for medical care, and is currently undergoing treatment and recuperation”.

Ministry spokesman Lin Jian gave no further details of Peng’s condition or whereabouts.

Peng — who is also known as Peng Dashun — keeps a low profile, typically declining media interviews.

The MNDAA is one of dozens of rebel groups in Myanmar that has battled the military for decades for autonomy and control of lucrative resources including jade, timber and opium.

Myanmar’s current junta chief Min Aung Hlaing made a name for himself as a regional commander in 2009, pushing the MNDAA out of Laukkai, a town near the border with China.

But in January last year, the MNDAA recaptured Laukkai after more than 2,000 junta troops surrendered there in one of the military’s biggest defeats in decades.

In August, the MNDAA pushed even further, capturing the Shan state city of Lashio — around a hundred kilometres (62 miles) from its traditional homeland, the Kokang region, around Laukkai.

Lashio is the largest urban centre to fall to any of Myanmar’s myriad ethnic minority armed groups — who have been fighting the central authorities on and off for decades — since the military first seized power in 1962.

Analysts say Lashio’s fall was a step too far for Beijing, which is worried about the possibility of the junta falling and suspicious of Western influence among some pro-democracy armed groups battling the military.

China has since cut electricity, water and internet services to the Kokang region, on the border with Yunnan province, a source close to the group earlier told AFP.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing met Chinese Premier Li Qiang this month, saying the military was ready for peace if armed groups would engage, according to Myanmar state media.

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People rebuilding temporary homes near a destroyed building following fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army.
| Photo Credit: AFP

An alliance of Myanmar ethnic armed groups have accused the junta of repeatedly violating a China-brokered ceasefire in the north of the country this month and causing civilian casualties.

Beijing brokered a truce between the junta and the so-called “Three Brotherhood Alliance” in January after months of fighting that displaced more than half a million people near China’s southern border.

The ceasefire allowed the alliance— made up of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), and the Arakan Army (AA) to hold swathes of territory it had seized in northern Shan state.

Junta troops on June 19 launched an air strike on territory the TNLA holds near the ruby and gem-mining hub of Mogok, the group said.

“In this incident, one civilian was killed and 3 wounded including a 10-year-old child,” the TNLA said in a statement posted to the alliance’s Telegram channel on June 19.

On June 18 junta troops had launched a drone attack that had killed one TNLA member and seriously wounded four others, the TNLA added.

It said the attacks were the latest violation this month by the junta, which it said had shelled TNLA positions and cut roads and restricted the flow of goods to TNLA-controlled towns.

AFP was unable to reach a junta spokesman for comment.

In October last year, the alliance launched a surprise offensive across northern Myanmar, seizing several towns and lucrative border hubs that are vital for trade with China, dealing a blow to the cash-strapped and isolated junta.

Border trade with China during April-May was down by almost a third compared to the same period last year, junta-controlled media reported last week.

Last month China hosted follow-up peace talks between the military and the alliance in the city of Kunming.

A source close to the MNDAA told AFP that no substantial progress had been made, and the two sides would meet again in the future.

Myanmar’s borderlands are home to a plethora of ethnic armed groups, many of whom have battled the military since independence from Britain in 1948 over autonomy and control of lucrative resources.

While fighting in Shan state has calmed, the AA has launched its own offensive in western Rakhine state, where it says it is fighting for more autonomy for the ethnic Rakhine population.

Its fighters have seized territory along the border with India and Bangladesh, piling further pressure on the junta as it battles opponents elsewhere across the Southeast Asian country.

This handout photo taken and released October 28, 2023 by the Kokang Information Network shows members of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army walking past a Myanmar military base after seizing it during clashes near Laukkaing township in Myanmar’s northern Shan state.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Heavy fighting between rebels and the Myanmar military stretched into a second day near the country’s northern border with China, armed groups said on Saturday.

Myanmar’s junta seized power in a February 2021 coup that sparked renewed fighting with powerful ethnic rebel groups in northern Shan state.

An alliance of ethnic rebel groups launched coordinated attacks on military positions across the country’s north on Friday, posing a fresh challenge to the junta as it struggles to quell resistance to its rule.

The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army said Saturday it had seized three military outposts — two located close to Mongko near the border with China.

The rebels also ambushed a group of soldiers coming from Hopang and seized military equipment.

The group did not provide details of fatalities.

The Ta’ang National Liberation Army said Saturday it had so far seized three military outposts at Namhkam and 18 soldiers were killed.

The group also said it had taken two military outposts at Lashio and netted a haul of military equipment.

The military deployed a fighter jet and helicopter gunship to Lashio, the TNLA statement said.

Overnight, there was heavy shelling for seven hours near Lashio, a local rescue worker said, adding the fighting had died down on Saturday.

Junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun told local media on Friday that rebels had attacked military positions in the Chinshwehaw, Laukkai, and Kunlong areas and some outposts were lost.

“We tried to maintain peace and stability in north Shan, but insurgents tried to destroy stability,” he said.

China’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday it was “closely following” the fighting and called on all sides to prevent the situation from escalating.

Shan state has been earmarked for a proposed billion-dollar rail link under China’s Belt and Road global infrastructure project.