BEIJING :China will hold air defence and live-fire drills near its border with Myanmar from Wednesday. This is the second exercise this month as fighting between Myanmar’s ruling junta and rebel forces intensifies.
The drills follow a significant escalation of the conflict last week, when rebel forces captured the Myanmar town of Myawaddy, a key trading outpost near the Thai border, prompting a stream of refugees into Thailand.
State broadcaster CCTV said this week’s drills by China’s Southern Theater Command formed part of an annual training exercise. It did not refer to the fighting in Myanmar. China’s troops will “resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, border stability and the safety of people’s lives and property”, it added.
Myanmar’s military has battled insurgencies on several fronts since overthrowing an elected government in 2021. But defeats in frontier areas since last October have lost it control of tracts bordering Bangladesh, China and India.
Concerned about trade disruptions and an influx of refugees, China has acted as a mediator in the conflict. But Myanmar’s border with China had been relatively calm since ceasefire talks Beijing brokered in January. This came after five people were hurt in its southwestern province of Yunnan after an artillery shell crossed from Myanmar.
During a live-fire exercise last November, China’s military said armed conflicts in Myanmar had led to casualties and complicated the security situation. “It is the responsibility of the (People’s Liberation Army) to safeguard border security,” it added.
Security warnings by the Chinese embassy in November and December urged citizens to evacuate the key commercial town of Laukkai in Myanmar’s long-restive Kokang region in Shan state.
In 2015, shells from the area landed across the border in Yunnan amid battles between Myanmar government troops and rebels, some just 500 m (540 yards) from the border.
In 2009, clashes in the area drove tens of thousands to flee across the border into China, state media and rights groups have said.
(REUTERS)
