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Myanmar’s military junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is scheduled to visit close ally China next month, two sources close to the military told AFP on Wednesday. This is the first known coup since leading a coup in 2021.
Min Aung Hlaing is “planning to visit China in November…This visit has been planned since Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Myanmar in August,” a source close to the military said. said.
“He (Min Aung Hlaing) is planning to visit China next month,” another official said.
Both sources requested anonymity to speak to the media.
AFP has contacted the Chinese embassy in Yangon for comment.
Beijing is a key ally and arms supplier to the internationally isolated military regime, which is battling rival forces across the country after a 2021 coup.
Analysts say Beijing also maintains ties with Myanmar ethnic armed groups that control territory near the border.
Some of these groups have seized territory from the military regime in northern Shan State and disrupted traffic along key trade routes to China.
Shan State borders China’s Yunnan province and is a key part of Beijing’s multitrillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative.
Relations between the Chinese government and Naypyitaw soured last year after the junta failed to crack down on online fraud facilities targeting Chinese nationals in Myanmar’s border region.
The facilities are staffed by nationals from China and other countries, who are frequently trafficked and forced to defraud their fellow citizens, with a value that industry analysts say is billions of dollars. It is said that it goes up to
Analysts have since suggested that the Chinese government may have acquiesced in attacks by a coalition of ethnic rebels across Shan State, which launched the attack as part of its aim to root out the fraud complex. claims to have done so.
In August, China’s foreign minister said Beijing supported the military junta’s plan to hold new elections and return the war-torn country to a “democratic transition.”
Opponents say many opposition parties have been banned, clashes have broken out across the country, and the vote is neither free nor fair.
Min Aung Hlaing has visited Russia, another key ally and arms supplier, several times since the coup, including a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in 2022.
Bloomers/DHC
