China’s Neocolonial Agenda
China’s open support for the junta shows its prioritizing its own influence and interests over the lives and democratic aspirations of Myanmar’s people.
China’s increasingly overt alliance with the illegal junta is an affront to Myanmar’s democracy. It’s also a deliberate move to sideline the people of Myanmar in favor of Beijing’s own economic interests. In addition to lending false legitimacy to the junta and aiding and abetting its mass atrocity crimes, China’s sphere of influence and domination over Myanmar’s affairs speak of its neocolonial agenda. However, Beijing is placing a sure-to-lose bet on the collapsing junta against the people’s unprecedented nationwide and collective efforts to dismantle the military and establish federal democracy.
This troubling alliance was front and center once again on 6 November 2024, when Chinese Premier Li Qiang met the junta leader Min Aung Hlaing in China. Min Aung Hlaing’s first high-profile visit coincided with his attendance at the two-day Greater Mekong Subregion summit in Kunming, the capital city of China’s Yunnan Province, together with representatives from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. During a face-to-face meeting with the junta leader, Li Qiang reiterated that, “China supports Myanmar in advancing the political reconciliation and transformation.” This statement has to be read within the context of China’s diplomatic support for solely the illegal junta. Furthermore, the Chinese Premier stated that, “Stability in northern Myanmar is crucial, and China reaffirms the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Myanmar and strongly opposes any actions that harm the interests of Myanmar.” China’s open support for the junta shows its prioritizing its own influence and interests over the lives and democratic aspirations of Myanmar’s people.
This support goes beyond diplomatic handshakes; it directly worsens the already dire human rights and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. In October 2024, China’s abrupt decision to close its border with Myanmar has choked off essential supplies and vital lifelines for civilians and resistance forces alike. The closure has cut off the supply of food, medicine, and other critical resources, intensifying the people’s suffering particularly in northern border areas. By enforcing this border lockdown, Beijing is directly aiding the junta, isolating Myanmar’s people from desperately needed resources, and leaving them more vulnerable to the junta’s brutality. This is not a neutral “security measure”—it’s a calculated move to harm the people-led resistance and those who support it.
Furthermore, on 27 August 2024, China’s Special Envoy for Asian Affairs and representatives of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) secretly met in Yunnan Province. During this meeting, uncovered by a leaked document, China reportedly urged the UWSA to stop supporting other ethnic armed groups and revolutionary forces, including People’s Defense Forces. As reported in the meeting record, if the UWSA does not follow its directive, “the Chinese Government would suspend all economic and livelihood-related support to the Wa Region, halt all trade with Wa, and cease cooperation on mining, industrial development, and hydroelectric power projects.” Such threats show that Beijing’s true aim is not stability, as often claimed, but interference and domination. By trying to impose its influence on ethnic resistance-revolutionary forces, China is not only further escalating the Myanmar’s multi-faceted crisis, but also actively destabilizing the region by lending false legitimacy and financial support to the murderous junta.
China’s policy mirrors the Myanmar military’s infamous “Four Cuts” strategy, largely accepted as the blocking of food/aid, funds, intelligence, and recruits to the resistance. By closing its border, China is effectively replicating this brutal tactic, cutting Myanmar’s people from access to basic and critical resources for their livelihood, in an attempt to pressure resistance forces to stop their fast-growing operations. China’s moves are unmistakably oppressive measures that prop up a junta that has no chance to win over the nationwide revolutionary forces and continues to commit mass atrocity crimes against the people.
As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China is obliged to uphold international peace and security. Instead, its blatant support for the Myanmar military junta undermines those responsibilities, enabling and endorsing the junta’s ongoing atrocities, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The international community must hold China accountable for its assaults against Myanmar’s people and demand that it immediately ceases its harmful policies and actions. Beijing cannot hide behind its diplomatic posturing while treating the sacrifices of Myanmar’s people as mere collateral in its predatory and neocolonial agenda.
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[1] One year following the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, the former military junta changed the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar overnight. Progressive Voice uses the term ‘Myanmar’ in acknowledgement that most people of the country use this term. However, the deception of inclusiveness and the historical process of coercion by the former State Peace and Development Council military regime into usage of ‘Myanmar’ rather than ‘Burma’ without the consent of the people is recognized and not forgotten. Thus, under certain circumstances, ‘Burma’ is used.
Resources from the past week
Statements and Press Releases
By Burma Human Rights Network
အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုနှင့် တရုတ်အစိုးရကြားက ဆွေမျိုး ပေါက်ဖော်ဆက်ဆံရေး
By Defend Myanmar Democracy
Looming famine in Rakhine signals wider crisis in Myanmar
By United Nations Development Programme
Reports
Pyu Saw Htee And Pro-Junta Thugs
By Burma Human Rights Network
ပျူစောထီးနှင့် စစ်တပ်လက်ကိုင်တုတ် အကြမ်းဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းများ
By Burma Human Rights Network
Women’s Information Factsheet October 2024
By Burmese Women’s Union
၂၀၂၄ခုနှစ် အောက်တိုဘာလအတွင်း အမျိုးသမီးများဆိုင်ရာအချက်အလက်
By Burmese Women’s Union
By Human Rights Foundation of Monland
Summary of SAC human rights violations in Karenni State and Pekhon Township
By Karenni Civil Society Network
Disinformation and Identity-Based Violence
By Stanley Center for Peace and Security
Rakhine: A Famine in the Making
By United Nations Development Programme
Progressive Voice is a participatory, rights-based policy research and advocacy organization that was born out of Burma Partnership. Burma Partnership officially ended its work on October 10, 2016 transitioning to a rights-based policy research and advocacy organization called Progressive Voice. For further information, please see our press release “Burma Partnership Celebrates Continuing Regional Solidarity for Burma and Embraces the Work Ahead for Progressive Voice.”
