On October 27 this year, the military strongholds of the Burmese army in Lashio, Gui and other places in northern Myanmar were attacked by the armed forces of the Kokang National Democratic Alliance Army of Myanmar. However, this major city of Kokang, known as the "capital of electric fraud", has gathered a large number of Chinese, and the continuous conflict has seriously threatened the safety of local Chinese lives and property, and the situation is not optimistic.
In this regard, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly issued reminders and actively mediated the situation, hoping that all parties in Myanmar will earnestly implement the consensus, exercise maximum restraint, take the initiative to ease the situation on the ground, manage the occasional friction during the ceasefire, and maintain the momentum of the ceasefire and peace talks. Recently, an exchange of fire broke out near the Crown Hotel in the eastern district of Kokang Old Street, Myanmar, resulting in many deaths and injuries, including Chinese.
In response to the situation in northern Myanmar, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning also responded at a regular press conference on December 29 that China is highly concerned about the war in northern Myanmar, expresses strong dissatisfaction with the casualties caused by the armed conflict, and has lodged a solemn protest with the relevant parties. At the same time, it also issued an appeal, hoping that the Chinese personnel involved in fraud stranded in Lao Cai will return to China as soon as possible and turn themselves in, so as to strive for the opportunity for leniency.
The fighting in northern Myanmar has continued since October, and there is still no sign of an end in sight, and the Kokang Alliance and the Burmese military junta are still under constant artillery fire. Lao Cai is one of the most important cities in the Kokang region, since the outbreak of the conflict, both sides have been trying to take control of this modern town, the Kokang Alliance has also poured a lot of effort into the area, and now has surrounded Lao Cai, but also invaded the core of Lao Cai, the government army has been defeated and retreated, however, Lao Cai is in the flames of war, which will only make the situation in northern Myanmar unstable and affect the development of the local economy.
Myanmar is adjacent to China, and the current chaos will certainly not be seen by the people of Chinese, and if Myanmar continues to be chaotic, it will only have a negative impact on regional peace and stability, and will also affect trade between China and Myanmar, and the war will only bring destruction, displace innocent civilians, and inevitably cause a humanitarian crisis and bring unnecessary pressure to neighboring countries. In order to avoid a wider catastrophe, the Chinese government has been actively mediating. China has made many efforts to ease the situation, trying to get the parties to the conflict to shake hands and make peace, and stop the military and truce fighting, but the interests of northern Myanmar are intertwined, and the contradictions between the government forces and the Kokang allies have been difficult to reconcile for a long time, and both have their own goals, making it difficult to achieve peace.
In fact, Myanmar is not just starting to be chaotic now, and it has lasted for more than 70 years, and there has been a civil war since the founding of the country, which is mainly due to the continuous struggle between the Myanmar government army and the local ethnic armed forces, and the contradictions between the two sides are sharp, and the reasons for the conflict are numerous, covering historical, political, economic, ethnic and geographical factors.
Historically, the northern part of Myanmar has been home to ethnic minorities, far from the center of power, and the central government has not had much control over the region. The corrupt central government of Myanmar has also become incapable of handling government affairs, resulting in a delay in effectively resolving the problems of the ethnic minority areas in the north. Coupled with problems such as ethnic discrimination and restrictions on the rights and interests of ethnic minorities, a series of ethnic minority armed groups have emerged in northern Myanmar, who are dissatisfied with the rule of the central government and hope for more political rights and autonomy.
In addition, northern Myanmar is also rich in natural resources, such as oil, natural gas, minerals, etc., and the local government wants to get a piece of the pie, but the central government of Myanmar is unwilling to make the slightest concession, and the ethnic minority areas that want to share the benefits of resources have failed to do so, resulting in uneven economic development and a widening gap between the rich and the poor, which naturally leads to revolts and intensifies conflicts between Myanmar's interests.
There are many such conflicts, after all, there are many ethnic minorities in Myanmar, and there are also contradictions between different ethnic groups, who often fight for their own survival, and in this process, it is difficult for the government army to intervene. One of the main reasons for this is that the geography of northern Myanmar, with its mountainous terrain and jungles, allows armed groups to be well hidden, and government forces are unable to establish an effective influence in these areas, resulting in constant conflict and no hope of a solution.
This has also led to a vicious circle, in which the mutual trust between the parties to the conflict is almost nil, and in the process of distributing benefits, they prefer to use force to solve problems. This method will only bring hatred, and they will not be used to each other, and after the dispute, they will leave all kinds of problems, which will lead to the deepening misunderstanding of the interested parties, and it will be difficult to sit together at all. In this process, external forces have also taken advantage of the situation to add fuel and vinegar, making the situation in northern Myanmar even more chaotic and tying one "dead knot" after another.
Although the civil unrest in Myanmar began in northern Myanmar but has now spread to the whole country, the military conflict, code-named "Operation 1027", has made the rebels in other provinces and states of Myanmar restless. In particular, after seeing the successive defeats of the government army, the armed forces of ethnic minorities in many places could no longer sit still and took the opportunity to reap the benefits. At present, the flames of war have been ignited in Sagaing Province, Karenni State and Chin State in Myanmar, and one city after another battle has been staged. The storm set off by the De'ang National Liberation Army, the Arakan Army and the Kokang National Democratic Alliance Army of Myanmar has put unprecedented pressure on the Burmese government army, which was 1 to 3 before, and now the opponents are estimated to have increased a lot, and these armed forces have targeted the Burmese army, causing the Burmese army to be exhausted, and most of Lao Cai was occupied by the Kokang Allied Army, which is a good illustration of the problem, and the development of the situation is moving in a direction that is unfavorable to the Burmese army.
2023 is not a peaceful year, with heartbreaking conflicts in all corners of the globe and the situation in northern Myanmar not reassuring, and there is no clear answer to where the future holds. However, the chaotic Myanmar is not good for anyone, war will not solve the problem, peace talks are the way out, and I hope that the parties to the conflict can calm down and contribute their own strength to regional peace and stability.