(Based on a staff article from the MYANMAR AMERICAN NEWS on 20 October 2024.)
Out of seventeen townships in Arakan, twelve townships
are now liberated by the Arakan Army (AA), while other five townships are on
the verge of collapse. The liberated townships are Kyauk-Taw, Myauk-oo,
Pauk-Taw, Min-Byar, Myae-Bone, Ponnar-Kyun, Yathe-Taung, Buthee-Taung,
Mayng-Daw, Than-Dwe, Man-Aung and Yam-Byae. Other five townships sill under Myanmar
Army’s control are Sit-Tway, Ann, Taung-Koke, Gwa, and Kyauk-Phyu.
One of those five townships, Kyauk-Phyu is the most
important one for there are Chinese projects worth nearly twenty billion US$ in
Kyauk-Phyu Town alone. Trans-Burma Crude Oil and Natural Gas Pipelines alone is
worth more than five billion US$, the Kyauk-Phyu Deep Sea Port Project is worth
nearly four billion US$, and the Kyauk-Phyu
Special-Economic-Zone (SEZ) Project is worth more than seven billion US$.
According to the China’s China’s Special Envoy for Asian Affairs, Deng Xijun, those three large and strategically important projects, invested-and-owned wholly by China, is the one worry keeping Chinese President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wan Yi awake at nights.
Kyauk-Phyu is a coastal town on the Bay of Bengal,
and for two months now AA has surrounded the town as the defending Myanmar Army
blockaded themselves with high barbwire fences and minfields. Town is now only
supplied and reinforced from the sea as the AA troops circled and tightly shut
the small town.
Kyauk-Phyu Special-Economic-Zone (KP SEZ) Project is a key component of the Chinese infrastructure-focused Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Paired with the planned 1,400-km high-speed Kunming-Muse-Mandalay-Kyaukphyu railroad linking the KP SEZ with China, the deepwater port will allow China to access the Indian Ocean through Myanmar, making it the shortest and most economical path between China and India.
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| Panamanian-flagged super tanker unloading the Iranian-Crude at Maday Terminal. |
One can’t blame Xi Jinping for overly worrying about the military situation at Kyauk-Phyu. His political legacy depends on the success of attaining that crucial access to Indian Ocean through Burma. He knows the US and India will never let that happen and the Arakan Army (AA) is basically founded by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in 2009 with the clandestine support from CIA.
China is already applying maximum pressure on the
KIA by blockading and shutting down the China-Kachin border. Xi Jinping and Wan
Yi want KIA to stop capturing the towns occupied by the Myanmar Army, and also
to pressure AA not to capture Kyauk-Phyu the beating heart of Chinese mega-investment
in Myanmar.
AA, capable of capturing an Arakan township a
month, also is under enormous pressure from both Chian and India not to attack
and liberate Kyauk-Phyu. AA’s C-in-C General Htun Myat Naing, normally very
decisive, now seems to be wavering at the gates of Kyauk-Phyu. What will happen
if Kyauk-Phyu falls into the hands of Arakan Army will be everyone’s educated
guess?
Right now, the military-town Ann is on the verge of falling into AA’s hands as the Arakan Army rapidly tightening the total constriction of Ann-based Western Military Command (Na-Pa-Kha) which could become the second Divisional-Military-Base lost to the Resistance Forces, after the Lashio-based Ya-Ma-Kha the North-eastern Military Command.
Once Ann falls AA can simply cut the crude oil and
natural gas flowing constantly to Yunan, China as the Trans-Burma Pipelines go
through Ann Township. According to the inside sources the land-locked Yunan
Province is completely dependent on those pipelines for nearly a half of its energy
requirement.
No wonder Xi Jinping, who had been refusing to officially recognize that Tinpot-Dictator Min Aung Hlaing as the head of state of Burma, is forced into inviting him to Bejing next month. And the Motherfucker is using Xi's invitation as a leverage against his opponents in the Myanmar Army and even dare to arrest the dear son-in-law of former Dictator General Than Shwe, Dr. Nay Soe Maung.
The good doctor was accused of Treason for his Facebook-Mourning of recently passed away Zaw Myint Maung the former NLD Chief-Minister of Mandalay Division. He simply wrote, "I pray for you to be born again as a human but in a country where you will be treated as a human!"
