(Concise translation of Thuta Zaw’s article from MYANMAR NOW on 4 October 2024.)
MNDAA the Kokang Army has recently declared, as the
obivious response to China’s relentless pressure, that its members are now
being prohibited from travelling to the Western Nations especially the US, and
the ASEAN nations. The MNDAA also prohibited all their members from meeting or
discussing the crucial matters with those nations.
That is in addition to its declaration stopping all
collaboration, either politics or military, with US-aligned NUG (NLD’s exile
National Unity Government based in US) or any international organization that
opposed China, in early September this year. But China wants more than those
written assurances from seemingly recalcitrant MNDAA. China wants the Kokang
Army to withdraw from the prized Lashio City they captured from Myanmar Army
this year on July 25.
To force MNDAA to meet that impossible demand China has been severely blockading the Kokang Territory as their so-called Cut-5-Cuts Operation along the Chinese Border since last September. Strictly No Electricity, No Water, No Internet, No crucial supplies such as rice, fuel, medicines, and essential-consumables, and No Cross-border Movement. The whole Kokang-China border has been tight shut by a division of PLA, the People Liberation Army.
But the Kokangs are clever people for they are
using the Wa Territory down south next to Kokang Territory to get the stuff
from China and the UWSA has been benefitting from that. So what did China do
recently to close that blockade-loophole? They sent their Special Envoy for Asian Affairs, Deng Xijun to
a secret meeting with the UWSA and as usual the Narco-Insurgents UWSA leaked
the secret written minutes of that secret meeting to the press such as
Myanmar-Now and Eleven-Myanmar.
Following is their reports on that Secret
China-UWSA Meeting held on August-27 at Pu’er City in Southern-Yunan.
Not-so-Secret Meeting in Pu’er the Tea Capital
Pu’er City is in the south-central part of Yunnan
Province. Often referred to as China's Tea Capital, Puer is probably best known
as the source of Pu'erh Tea, a dark, fermented style of tea that is one of the
most prized kinds of Chinese tea. Pu’er City is one of the highest producing
areas of Pu'er tea today.
The secret meeting in Pu’er City was attended by
China’s Special Envoy for Asian Affairs, Deng Xijun and the top UWSA/UWSP
leaders including Kyauk Kaw An, Head of External Relations, and Bao Ai Kham,
Deputy General Secretary of the UWSP.
At that meeting, Deng Xijun applied maximum
pressure, and he basically ordered the Wa leaders, to cooperate fully with
China in blocking the MNDAA and the Kokang people from accessing China,
especially through UWSA/UWSP-controlled Wa Special Administrative Region as the
Kokangs are doing right now.
Deng Xijun repeatedly reminded the Wa leaders that
the Myanmar Army has been the only institution building the Nation of Myanmar
from the very beginning (1948-Independence from the Britain?) and ASSK’s NLD or
the National Unity Government, the NUG, won’t be able to substitute the role of
Myanmar Army in Burma. And his China will never accept the collapse of Myanmar
Army and the eventual victory of NUG and its PDF (People Defense Forces,
ironically armed with PLA’s Type-81 rifles) closely aligned to the US and the
West.
And thus, if the MDNAA is still holding the Lashio
City and Shan-North, his China will not end the current blockade. He even added
that China will take more devastating actions against MNDAA in future soon if
the Kokang Army still do not return Lashio City to the Myanmar Army.
MNDAA is the army controlling Kokang Special
Administrative Region in Top Shan-North brodering China and the Lau-Kai and the
Chin-Shwe-Haw are two cities with main Burma-China cross-border trading gates
now being blockaded by the China’s PLA.
Despite the months-long China’s Blockade, Deng
Xijun angrily pointed out, the Kokang Army has been surviving and kept holding
Lashio City since they have access to essential goods and services from China
through Wa Region and Mine-Lar Special Administrative Region, both bordering the
Kokang Region and China.
Deng Xijun also threatened to the Wa leaders that,
if they refuse to collaborate immediately with China in blockading the MNDAA
they will also face similar blockade from China soon.
Big-Bad-China Revealing its Big-black-hands
After the August-3 Capture of Lashio City by the
MNDAA, Deng Xijun visited Nay-pyi-daw on August-8 and then again on August-14
when he accompanied Chinese Foreign Minister Wan Yi visiting Nay-pyi-daw. He
met the Myanmar Dictator General Min Aung Hlaing on both occasions and
discussed of Myanmar Army’s repeated defeats, including the fall of Lashio City
and the surrender of Northeastern-Military-Command (Ya-Ma-Kha), to the ethnic Northenrn
Alliance Armies (KIA, AA, MNDAA, and TNLA).
Immediately after those high-level-meetings with the Myanmar Dictator, Chinese Communist Government started imposing on the MNDAA and Kokang Region the “Cut-5-Cuts” total blockade.
China also has been pressuring the UWSA, the
strongest and the largest ethnic army among all the China-Border-Based Ethnic
Armed Organizations (EAO is a nice name for the ethnic narco-insurgents), to
stop supplying MNDAA and TNLA with weapons and ammunitions, and not to involve
in the war-of-resistance raging all over the Shan-North.
All despite with the knowledge that over a million
Chinese-Type-81 automatic assault rifles now carried by almost every rebel soldier in Myanmar came from the armories of Yunan-Based PLA divisions.
(To be continued…..)
