Burma, China Consolidating Military Relations

By MIN LWIN

Signs are evident that Burma and China are stepping up military cooperation after Burma’s top three generals met with Gen Zhang Li, the vice chief-of-staff of China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA), on Monday in Naypyidaw.

Snr-Gen Than Shwe, who frequently snubs visiting UN envoys, reportedly offered a warm welcome to the visiting Chinese delegation. Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye and Gen Thura Shwe Mann also attended the meeting. Thura Shwe Mann later held separate talks with the Chinese general, according to China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency on Monday.

Xinhua did not provide details of the meeting, but said that Zhang Li had discussions with Thura Shwe Mann, the chief of general staff of the Burmese army, navy and air force. The Chinese news agency also commented on the spirit of “friendly cooperation” between the armed forces of the two countries.

Htay Aung, a Burmese researcher in Thailand, said that Gen Zhang Li’s trip to Burma was a means of strengthening cooperation between the two armed forces.

China has been the major supplier of military hardware to Burma since the regime crushed a pro-democracy uprising in 1988. China has provided fighter jet planes, naval ships, tanks, military vehicles and ammunition to the Burmese junta. It has been reported that China has delivered some US $2 billion worth of military equipment to Burma since the early 1990s.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy, Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese analyst living at the China-Burma border, said he believed that the generals’ meeting focused on the military industry.

“The Chinese armed forces have helped and supported the Burmese with heavy military hardware for years,” he said, adding that 90 percent of Burmese military transportation is supplied by China.

New York-based Human Rights Watch pointed out in its October 2007 report that India, China, Russia, and other nations have supplied Burma with weapons that the Burmese army uses to commit human rights abuses against civilians and to bolster its ability to maintain power.

The international rights group said that China has supplied Burma with advanced helicopter gunships, arms production technology, support equipment and small arms, including mortars, landmines, and assault rifles, as well as assistance in setting up an indigenous small-arms production capability. It said China had also supplied a vast array of advanced military hardware to Burma, including fighter planes, naval vessels and tanks, and other infantry support weapons.

In August, Burma’s Chief of Defense Industry Lt-Gen Tin Aye visited China. State-run Xinhua reported that he met with Gen Liang Guanglie, a member of the central military commission and chief of general staff of the PLA, in an effort to increase cooperation in political, economic, cultural and military spheres.

According to Xinhua, the Chinese defense ministry was ready to work with Burma to further expand bilateral cooperation, so as to help the two nations’ defense and to safeguard regional peace and stability.

According to a report leaked to The Irrawaddy, in July, at a confidential meeting with senior staffers, Home Affairs minister Maj-Gen Maung Oo said that Burma was not pro-China. However, Maung Oo stated that Burma was China’s “road to the sea of southern states” because allies of the US, such as Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were encircling China.

In 1989, Than Shwe, then deputy commander in chief of the armed forces, led the first high-level visit to China to purchase military hardware.