Senior Chinese official meets Myanmar leader for security talks as fighting rages in frontier area

BANGKOK (AP) — A high-ranking official from China has made a visit to military-ruled Myanmar to discuss security along the countries’ shared border, Myanmar state media reported Tuesday.

The visit by Chinese State Council member and Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong comes as fighting rages along Myanmar’s northeastern frontier, where an alliance of ethnic minority groups launched an offensive against the military government.

MRTV state television reported that Wang met Tuesday in the capital, Naypyitaw, with Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who heads Myanmar’s government. The Chinese official met Monday with Myanmar’s Home Affairs minister, Lt. Gen. Yar Pyae.

Wang’s visit came just days after the Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, calling themselves the Three Brotherhood Alliance, launched an offensive to seize military targets in the northern part of Shan state.

The MRTV report said Wang and Min Aung Hlaing discussed the alliance’s coordinated attacks, which the broadcaster described as intended to destroy peace and stability in northeastern Myanmar.

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China is Myanmar’s biggest trading partner and maintains good relations with the country’s ruling generals. The groups in the alliance also have good relations with China and have vowed to protect foreign investments such as Chinese-backed projects in territory they control.

The groups in the armed alliance, like other minority groups living in border regions, have struggled for decades for greater autonomy from Myanmar’s central government. They together control an estimated 45,000 armed members, according to analysts.

Fighting between the army and many ethnic minority armed groups, including the alliance members, intensified after the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

Several groups, including those in the Three Brotherhood Alliance, have collaborated with pro-democracy militias formed after the military takeover. The militias, collectively known as the People’s Defense Force, now battle the army over much of the country.

Battles have been reported since Friday in the Shan state townships of Kunlong, Hseni, Kyaukme, Kutkai, Lashio, Laukkaing, Muse, Namhkan, Chinshwehaw and Nawnghkio.

Fighting also spread in some areas in northern Kachin state, the northern part of Sagaing region, and Mogok township in Mandalay region.

The military has responded with bombing and shelling, sending many hundreds of civilians fleeing to safer areas, residents have said.

The Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported that towns in Shan state were attacked by the combined forces to affect border trade and transportation. It said rocket attacks by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army killed two children in Namkhan township.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a situation report published Monday that seven people, including two children, were killed and nine others were injured due to the fighting. It said over 6,200 newly displaced people sought refuge in nearby forests or religious compounds in northern Shan state, and that several hundred people had crossed the border into China in search of safety.

Fighting has displaced more than 1.8 million people in Myanmar since the army’s 2021 takeover.

Le Kyar Wai, a spokesperson for the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the alliance had seized about 80 military targets and killed and arrested about 100 members of the security forces and army-affiliated militias since the operation began.

The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army is the fighting arm of Myanmar’s Kokang minority, who are ethnic Chinese.

State broadcaster MRTV said Wang and Min Aung Hlaing also discussed China-Myanmar cooperation in fighting online fraud and other cybercrimes, and in curbing the production and distribution of illicit drugs, a longstanding problem in which some ethnic armed groups have been involved.

Organized crime groups in the border area carry out online and phone scams employing thousands of people, many tricked into coming from China by fake job offers but who end up working in conditions of near slavery.

The crime rings are headed by ethnic Chinese, often in cooperation with local Myanmar warlords. The Chinese government pushed a crackdown on the operations in recent weeks, and thousands of people allegedly involved were repatriated to China.

Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army-backed online media posted a statement from the group Friday saying it had blocked roads in order to raid the same online scams.