With international attention focused on the travails of the over six lakh refugees who had fled Myanmar’s Rakhine Province, China sought to seize the initiative by some deft diplomacy, wooing both Aung San Suu Kyi and Military Commander-in-Chief General Min Aung Hlaing. After blocking efforts by western and Islamic countries to move strongly against Myanmar in the UN Security Council, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Myanmar and Bangladesh. He came out with a proposal for negotiations between them, leading to repatriation of the displaced. This was accepted gleefully by Myanmar and with some foreboding by Bangladesh, which subsequently reached agreement with Myanmar.
These moves coincided with agreement between India and Myanmar to step up military cooperation, particularly on dealing with cross-border insurgencies. Myanmar has been cooperative on this score, even though it faces continuing armed insurgencies on the borders of its Kachin State with China’s Yunnan Province, which also borders India.
While China provides support to India’s armed northeast separatist groups, it has avoided commenting publicly on the internal situation in our northeast. This policy has now changed, with China’s official mouthpiece, the Global Times, focusing attention on the “China Myanmar Economic Corridor” and on India’s efforts for promoting regional economic cooperation and connectivity between its northeastern states and neighbouring Myanmar, Thailand and other ASEAN members.
What, however, makes this Global Times article significant, is that for the first time, it alludes to India’s northeast “sharing greater ethnic, cultural and historical ties with Myanmar, Thailand and China’s Yunnan Province than with the rest of India”. It adds: “Furthermore, people from this region have strong secessionist tendencies and it is home to many armed separatist forces”. It believes that India will move faster on connectivity of its northeast, within the country, rather than with its eastern neighbours.It concludes: “India’s north-eastern region also includes on-going disputed areas with China. Thus, New
Delhi is concerned that China’s presence there is not conducive to India’s territorial interests. So, India has imposed special restrictions on Chinese entering the region, and Chinese firms doing business there.”New Delhi is well informed about the games the Chinese play with armed insurgents. It is well known that China tries to unite these disparate groups under the umbrella of the self-styled “United Liberation Front of Western South East Asia” (UNLFW)—an amalgamation of various separatist groups formed jointly by the United Liberation Front of Assam, the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland, the Kamatapur Liberation Organisation, and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland.
Both China and India, however, share an interest in stability in the Rakhine State. India seeks access for its northeastern states to the Bay of Bengal, through the northern part of the Rakhine State. Both China and India seek access to the Bay of Bengal across the Southern Rakhine State, through the port of Sittwe that India has built and the port of Kyaukpyu that China is developing.
China has a history of seeking to mould events within Myanmar. It retains close links with armed groups like the Kachin Independence Army operating in the Kachin State. Beijing also seeks to leverage the cross-border activities of armed groups across the Shan State. Myanmar, however, appreciates that it faces no threat from across its borders with India.
G Parthasarathy
Former diplomat
dadpartha@gmail.com