The Arakan Army's Ascent From State to Nation

           (Suu Mon’s article from the ACLED on 31 October 2025.)

From state to nation: The Arakan Army's ascent in post-coup Myanmar. The Arakan Army’s successes in Rakhine state advance its regional goals and provide it with strategic leverage against the military and its backers in India and China.

Since the 2021 military coup, the Arakan Army (AA) has rapidly become the most powerful armed actor in western Myanmar, where it controls the most territory, has built administrative structures, and asserts authority over the wider region.

The AA is now a significant national-level actor that conducts multi-regional operations with old and new allies and has influence far beyond Rakhine state. The AA controls part or all of major foreign investment projects in Rakhine state, which gives it strategic leverage with China and India, countries that desire project continuity and currently support the military regime.

Rare Earth Extraction by China in Kachin State

(Based on AI Overview of GOOGLE Search on 28 June 2026.)

Chinese Rare earth extractions in Myanmar's Kachin State relies on in-situ leaching, an industrial process that pumps chemical solutions directly into mountainsides to dissolve and collect valuable heavy metals like dysprosium and terbium.

The operations are highly destructive, supply chains are entangled with armed conflict, and the output feeds heavily into China. The Extraction Process In-Situ Leaching is often described as an "IV drip" for the mountains. Workers drill holes into hillsides, lay a network of pipes, and inject leaching agents (such as Ammonium Nitrate or Ammonium Sulfate) into the soil.

The chemical solution seeps through the earth, dissolving the naturally occurring rare earth elements bound to the ionic clay. The metal-rich liquid flows downslope and is captured in large, tarpaulin-lined leaching pools for collection.

Myanmar Rebels on Back Foot As Conscripts Fill Army

(Quentin Sommerville’s post from the BBC NEWS on 10 June 2026.)

Inside Myanmar, rebels are losing ground as military forces men into army: The four young men in the rebel camp hidden deep in jungle-covered mountains never wanted a part in Myanmar's civil war. They didn't choose to be soldiers for the military either.

One had been a chef on his way home from work when he was grabbed off the street. His lack of ID was enough for the military to detain him and force him to sign up. Another was taken on his way back from a late-night karaoke session; a third had been working for the forestry department when he was arrested. The fourth man says on being arrested, drugs were slipped into his shoe, and he was framed and made to enlist.

"Before we even understood what was happening, we were sent straight to the front lines," one of the men – all between the ages of 19 and 25 – tells the BBC. They made us do all kinds of things we didn't want to do," another adds. "We never got any real rest, not in the morning, not during the day, and not even at night. The conscripts had to do everything. While the regular soldiers hardly had to work."

Burmese-American Scholar Min Zin Arrested in China

(Staff post from IRRAWADDY NEWS JOURNAL on 19 June 2026.)

China Arrests Myanmar-Born US Scholar on Suspicion of Spying: China arrested a Myanmar-born scholar on its southwestern border in Yunnan Province early this month, accusing the US citizen of spying ⁠and endangering Chinese national security, China’s Foreign Ministry confirmed on Friday. 

China has notified the US Consulate General in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou of the arrest, Lin ‌Jian, ⁠a ministry spokesperson, told a regular news conference when asked about U Min Zin’s disappearance ⁠in Kunming last ⁠week, Reuters said. U Min Zin, a US citizen originally from Myanmar, was arrested by security forces on June 3 upon his arrival at the airport in the provincial capital Kunming.

The Irrawaddy has learned that he was invited to attend an event hosted by a Chinese university there. He studies Myanmar politics and is a founding member and executive director of the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar (ISP-Myanmar), a nongovernmental policy think tank whose research focuses on China-Myanmar relations, among other issues. ISP-Myanmar was not available for comment on Friday.

Sydney House Prices Fall Faster as Clearances Crash

 (Lucy Slade’s post from the AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW on 22 June 2026.)

‘Downturn is deepening’: Sydney house prices fall faster as clearances crash. Sydney house prices have fallen 1.1 per cent in the last four weeks, with the pace of the decline picking up as clearance rates crash close to their lowest on record, according to Cotality.

The correction, which could extend for months longer, hit the Sydney and Melbourne markets first but is already being felt in Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide where a previously buoyant market is also showing signs of easing. Sydney and Melbourne’s home values could fall by 8 per cent by November.

“In Sydney and Melbourne, it does look like this downturn is deepening as we move into winter,” said Tim Lawless, research director at Cotality, a property data provider. Cotality’s rolling home value index shows prices have declined by 1.1 per cent in Sydney in the last four weeks and are now sliding faster than the 0.9 per cent fall recorded over May.

Chinese Investments on Aussie Houses Plunged 31 B$

(Nathan Mawby’s post from the REALESTATE.COM on 11 June 2026.)

$31bn plunge in Chinese investors will hurt Aus housing, experts warn: A decade after major tightening of foreign investment rules in Australia the nation has had a more than $65bn cut to funds coming in — spearheaded by China.

China-based property buyers have made moves on $200m worth of Aussie homes in the first three months of 2026. But it’s a fraction of what they used to spend, with Australia on track to receive $31bn less in investment from the Asian superpower into its property market compared to 2016.

Latest figures from the Foreign Investment Review Board show Chinese investors are on track to buy in the vicinity of $1bn worth of residential homes here in the current financial year. In the 2015-2016 financial year they sought to buy a jaw-dropping $31.912bn worth of Aussie homes.

Bypassing China’s Chokepoint: Through Myanmar

              (Daniel Swift’s post from FDD on 18 June 2026.)

China’s Chokepoint Problem: Why Beijing Is Welcoming a Leader Nobody Likes. No one likes Min Aung Hlaing. Nevertheless, the leader of Myanmar’s military government kicked off a five-day state visit in China on June 16, seeking legitimacy after a sham election that few inside or outside Myanmar take seriously.

He remains deeply unpopular at home, where the economy has shrunk 20 percent since his February 2021 coup. Beijing is growing impatient over his inability to crack down on scam centers and to bring peace to Myanmar — home of the world’s longest-running civil war.

China needs stability on its 1,300-mile border with Myanmar and wants the junta to protect a pipeline terminus and port project in Rakhine State that gives it a foothold in the Indian Ocean and a bypass around the Strait of Malacca maritime chokepoint.

UWSA (Wa Army) Vs Arakan Army (AA)

 (Translation of Steven Sanyu’s post from his FACEBOOK pages on 16 June 2026.)

Will the Wa Army (UWSA) be going into a war with the Arakan Army (AA)?

So far, for many years UWSA has managed not to participate in the ongoing civil war between Myanmar Army and other ethnic armies such as AA (Yakhine Army), TNLA (Palaung Army), KIA (Kachin Army) and MNDAA (Kokang Army) even though the Wa were the ones making massive profits selling assault rifles and heavy-machineguns and ammunitions to other ethnic armies except KIA Kachins who have their own weapon manufacturing plants.

That long stalemate is going to change very soon as both their Chinese Masters and Myanmar Army generals now need them to annihilate the recalcitrant Yakhines (Arakaneses) of victorious AA in the western Myanmar State of Arakan.

Even with massive Chinese assistance in the form of advance war-drones and many billions of Chinese Yuan, Myanmar Army war columns many thousands-soldiers-strong have not managed to break through the AA defensive lines on the high hills and mountains of long Arakan Ranges (Arakan-Yoma) between the Proper Burma and Arakan State.

Myanmar Army is Winning Again with China’s Help?

(Jonathan Head’s post from the BBC NEWS on 23 October 2025.)

Myanmar's army is taking back territory with relentless air strikes - and China's help: When insurgents finally gained control of the town of Kyaukme - on the main trade route from the Chinese border to the rest of Myanmar - it was after several months of hard fighting last year.

Kyaukme straddles Asian Highway 14, more famous as the Burma Road during the Second World War, and its capture by the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) was seen by many as a pivotal victory for the opposition. It suggested that the morale of the military junta which had seized power in 2021 might be crumbling.

This month, though, it took just three weeks for the army to recapture Kyaukme. The fluctuating fate of this little hill town is a stark illustration of how far the military balance in Myanmar has now shifted, in favour of the junta.