PLA holds drill along Myanmar border as concerns grow
The People’s Liberation Army has conducted its second live-fire drill along the Chinese border with Myanmar this month, signalling Beijing’s heightened concerns over its neighbour’s deteriorating security situation.
The drill, which began yesterday, was organised by the PLA’s Southern Theatre Command and is a live-fire air defence exercise involving both ground and air forces, according to the theatre command’s WeChat account.
It said the drill tested the forces’ abilities in “air-defence capacity, reconnaissance, early warning, and repulsion”.
“Troops in the theatre ought to prepare to respond to all kinds of emergencies at all times and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, border stability, and the safety of people’s lives and property,” the statement said.
The military exercise came just two weeks after a PLA live-fire drill along the border amid continued rebel uprisings in northern Myanmar.
This is the third such live-fire drill Beijing has made public since an alliance of rebel groups in northern Myanmar launched an offensive against the country’s military junta last October.
Earlier this month, military mouthpiece PLA Daily said the war had “seriously threatened” security and stability in the border region, adding that the Chinese army would take “all necessary measures” to protect the safety of its people. It repeated China’s calls for a ceasefire, urging “relevant parties to maintain maximum restraint and continue to resolve issues through dialogue and negotiation”.
The Three Brotherhood Alliance, a coalition of three rebel militias in northern Myanmar, began conducting strikes in late October, posing a major challenge to the military junta that overthrew the country’s democratically elected government in 2021. Myanmar’s Shan state, which borders China, is the main battleground in the unrest.
China has repeatedly raised concerns about the security of the border region.
Several people in Yunnan province, which shares around 2,000km of border with Myanmar, have been wounded by aerial fire exchanges originating in the Southeast Asian country.
Beijing has worked to push both the junta and the rebels to the negotiating table, but the results have been viewed as limited.
In January, Beijing said it had brokered a ceasefire between Naypyidaw and the rebel alliance, but the junta reportedly breached the deal a day later.
There have been four rounds of peace talks. The last round, held in Yunnan’s provincial capital Kunming, focused on border trade. But there have been no breakthroughs, according to The Irrawaddy, a Thailand-based independent news outlet reporting on Myanmar.
Beijing has maintained official exchanges with the junta government since the fighting began.
Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong visited Naypyidaw and met junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing days after the conflict began in October. Sun Weidong, the foreign vice-minister. also held a series of talks with Min Aung Hlaing in January.
United Nations reports accused China of providing arms for the junta’s efforts to overthrow the democratic government – an accusation Beijing rejects.
Beijing does not label the junta’s removal of the elected government in 2021 as a “coup”.
Despite the anti-junta combat continuing in northern Myanmar, Beijing has continued its cooperation with Naypyidaw to crack down on cyber scams in the country, which frequently target Chinese nationals.
More than 800 suspected cross-border scammers were arrested in a joint police operation by Myanmar and China, Beijing’s embassy in Yangon said earlier this month.
Tens of thousands of scammers and some heads of criminal organisations have been arrested from the two countries since last year.