China Urges International Respect for Junta-Ruled Burma’s ‘Sovereignty’

Soldiers stand next to military vehicles as people gather to protest against the military coup, in Yangon, Burma, on Feb. 15, 2021. Stringer/Reuters

China’s foreign minister voiced support for Burma’s “sovereignty” in a rare visit to the military-ruled country on May 2 as Western countries continue to shun the junta for its violence against civilians.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang began his three-day visit to Burma—also known as Myanmar—on Tuesday, where he met with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing and other military junta officials.

Qin said that his visit demonstrated the “friendly relations” between the two nations and “China’s standing with Myanmar on the international stage,” the junta’s Information Department said in a statement.

He also met with the junta’s union minister for foreign affairs to discuss the acceleration of bilateral projects under the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) and China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Qin’s trip came a day after his talks with United Nations special envoy Noeleen Heyzer in Beijing, during which he affirmed the need to prevent the escalation of Burma’s internal conflict and “spillover of crisis.”

Qin urged the international community to “respect Myanmar’s sovereignty and support all parties and factions in Myanmar in bridging differences and resuming the political transition process through political dialogue.”

“With internal and external factors intertwined, the Myanmar issue is complex and has no quick fix,” he said, according to his ministry.

In response, Heyzer said the will of the country’s people must be respected and called for dialogue between the junta and opposition to achieve peace in Burma and regional development.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang holds a press conference with the Arab League's Secretary-General (unseen) at the league's headquarters in Cairo on Jan. 15, 2023. AFP via Getty Images

Burma has been plunged into turmoil since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in a February 2021 coup, with violence flaring in several regions as opposition groups clash with the junta.

More than 1.6 million people in Burma have been internally displaced, with an estimated 55,000 civilian buildings destroyed since the military takeover, according to the U.N. on March 16.

In the U.N. statement, Heyzer said that “atrocities, beheadings, and the mutilation of rebel fighters’ bodies have been recorded, together with escalating violence in ethnic areas.” But popular resistance persists across much of Burma.

“A generation that benefited from Myanmar’s previous opening up, especially the youth, is now disillusioned, facing chronic hardship, and many feeling they have no choice but to take up arms to fight military rule,” she said.

China-Burma Ties

China maintains its close ties with Burma despite widespread condemnation of the junta’s removal of Suu Kyi’s government and bloody crackdown on dissent.

Several Western countries have hit the junta and its businesses with sanctions to block them from generating revenue for weapons.

The former government of Suu Kyi signed 33 bilateral agreements with China in 2020 to implement the CMEC, which is part of Beijing’s BRI that critics have denounced as a “debt trap” for smaller nations.

The CMEC involves a number of infrastructure projects in Burma, including a railway connecting China’s Yunan Province to Kyaukphyu in Burma’s Rakhine State, which will provide China with alternative access to the Indian Ocean.

A Burmese woman walks behind a warning sign along the boundary line in the China-Burma border town of Wanding, in China's southwestern province of Yunnan, on Sept. 27, 2007. STR/AFP via Getty Images

Tom Andrews, the U.N. human rights expert on Burma, issued a report last year claiming that China, Russia, and Serbia have been supplying the junta “with weapons of the sort that are being used to attack civilians.”

The report states that Russia and China—both U.N. Security Council members—provided the military junta with numerous fighter jets and armored vehicles, while Serbia supplied rockets and artillery.

“It should be incontrovertible that weapons used to kill civilians should no longer be transferred to Myanmar. These transfers truly shock the conscience,” Andrews said.

Around 3,000 civilians in Burma have been killed since the military seized power, the U.N. stated, adding that “figures of casualties likely represent an underestimation of the reality on the ground.”