(Based on Burmese Facebook Posts in July-August 2026.)
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| Madam Chen Baoliu |
It
was November 1988, just after the failed-and-horribly-bloodied 8-8-88 Uprising
in military-ruled Socialist Burma, and there were huge border battles like Maing
Yang in Shan-North, Mae-tha-waw and Wan-kha in Karen State raging.
Maing
Yang was under siege by overwhelming BCP (Burma Communist Party) forces on the China-Burma
border line, while Myanmar Army was massively attacking KNU (Karen National
Union) forces digging in at fortified fortresses on the Thai-Burma border line.
But Myanmar Army was having a serious shortage of ammunitions especially the high-explosive shells for their 81mm and 120mm heavy mortars. Because of their brutal suppression of people uprising on 8-8-1988 the western nations had imposed strict arms embargo on them. And since the mortar rounds were all imported from the West before, Myanmar Army’s heavy mortars were suddenly silent.
Then
suddenly sea-going-shuttle-ships each carrying thousands and thousands of 81mm
and 120mm heavy mortar rounds from Singapore landed at the Rangoon Port. The
shells were immediately sent by cargo trains and trucks to every hot spot on
the China and Thai borders and then fired days and nights by Myanmar Army heavy
weapons units right onto the fortified positions of Communist and Ethnic
Insurgents.
Rumours
were that it took Myanmar Army to fire a million heavy motor rounds and nearly
a year to dislodge the insurgents from the borderline. The flow of heavy
ammunitions and accompanying US$ fees from Singapore continued on till
Singapore was forced to stop it at 2007.
Years
later some funny stories were slowly leaking out about those million heavy
mortar rounds from Singapore. The story was how Myanmar Army with the help of
friendly Chinese Counsellor in Rangoon tricked Singapore Strong Man Lee Quan Yu
to release and deliver at Singapore’s cost a million heavy mortar rounds,
nearly at their expiry date, for the purpose of destroying (decommissioning:
the Singapore Army called it) them in Burmese jungles and seas.
Foolishly
Lee Quan Yu even had to pay one US$ a mortar shell to Burmese Dictator General
Ne Win as a fee to destroy or decommission the said mortar shells. Following is
the interesting story of how General Ne Win with the help of Chinese Counsellor
Madam Chen Baoliu had fooled Lee Quan Yu in late 1988 and early 1989.
Ambassador Chen Baoliu (Burma, 1993-1997, Singapore, 1997-2000)
Supposedly
born in Shanghai and then gained a master degree in English from Peking
University, according to the Chinese Bureau of Public Security, Chen Baoliu
joined China Foreign Ministry as a Liaison Councillor in dealing with Burma and
Singapore.
But
according to the Myanmar MIS (Military Intelligence Services), she was a
Burma-born Chinawoman named Ma Nyunt Yee (a) Nyunt Nyunt. She was born in the
delta town of Myaung-Mya and graduated with a Bachelor degree in Physics from
Pathein College.
She
was an educated trilingual (Burmese and Chinese and English) and that got her
into the Chinese Foreign Ministry as a communication-liaison councillor by
1980. When the Myanmar Delegation led by Burmese Deputy Prime Minsister Htun
Tin visited Peking in June 1984, Chinese side was led by the new Chinese
Peesident Li Shang Nang and included Vice-President Wang Li, Foreign Minister
Wukyu Ziang, Ambassador Huyao Mander, and Councillor Chen Baoliu.
During
that period Chen Baoliu was getting closed to Myanmar Dictator General Ne Win
and eventually in 1993 she became Chinese Ambassador to Burma. She was also
closed to Singapore’s Strongman Lee Quan Yu and later in 1997 she became the
Chinese Ambassador to Singapore.
Over-production of heavy Mortar Rounds in Singapore
Singapore
Government owned Chartered-Ammunition-Industries (later renamed Singapore-Technology-Corporation)
have been producing the copies of German-designed 81 mm and 120 mm heavy
mortars and associated rounds in Singapore many years for exports.
For
some unexplained reasons, by 1988 the defence warehouses in Singapore were basically
storing more than 100,000 heavy mortar rounds and most were approaching their
expiry dates. As a small island nation Singapore doesn’t have enough space
and/or expertise to safely destroy (decommission) the high-explosive rounds
once they expired.
Those
nearly expired mortar rounds were rapidly becoming hot potatoes for Lee Quan Yu.
Our Madam Chen Baoliu was playing the crucial role of the translator between
Lee Quan Yu and China’s Paramount Leader Tein Shao Pheng during that time and
somehow she knew of the massive problem Singapore had been facing.
So our
Madam Chen Baoliu happily proposed a win-win solution to both Burma and
Singapore. Anyone could guess her clever solution by now. So Singapore started
sending their expired and almost-expired high explosive 81mm and 120mm mortar
rounds to Myanmar Army together with one dollar decommissioning fee for each
mortar shell.
Can anyone guess what Myanmar Army had done with those million free mortar rounds? They just dropped all those mortar shells onto the enemy positions for devastating results through their 81mm and 120mm heavy mortars securely mounted at miles away behind the border line.
That’s
how China saved Myanmar Army when they were nearly collapsed after that failed-horribly-bloodied
8-8-88 Nationwide-People-Uprising.
Related
posts at following links:
