Xinhua

 

Myanmar’s military leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, has held his first face-to-face meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping since seizing power in a 2021 coup, signalling a recalibration in ties between the isolated regime and its most powerful ally.

 

The meeting took place in Moscow on Friday, during commemorations marking 80 years since Nazi Germany’s defeat, and was confirmed by Myanmar state media on Saturday. It comes at a time when Myanmar’s generals face mounting battlefield losses, a crumbling economy, and growing dependence on Chinese support.

 

President Xi reportedly pledged aid for earthquake recovery following the deadly March tremor that killed over 3,700 people. He also offered to support efforts to end Myanmar’s grinding civil war. The two leaders discussed boosting cooperation, regional peace and maintaining bilateral ties—core interests for Beijing, which shares a 1,440-kilometre border with Myanmar.

 

China has long backed the junta, supplying arms and shielding it diplomatically, while reaping economic benefits through infrastructure and resource investments. But recent months have seen a subtle shift. With conflict surging near the Chinese border and trade disrupted, Beijing has begun exerting quiet but firm pressure on ethnic armed groups to de-escalate—and on the junta to stabilise its flailing grip.

 

That influence was most visible when the powerful Three Brotherhood Alliance, an ethnic rebel bloc, made sweeping gains last year across Shan State, even capturing the strategic town of Lashio. China, alarmed by the instability, brokered a brief ceasefire in early 2024, which soon collapsed. It has since leveraged border closures and power cuts to curb the fighting.

 

Last month, under clear Chinese pressure, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army ceded control of Lashio. Government troops have since reoccupied the town, marking a rare success for the junta in a war where it has largely been on the back foot.

 

While Beijing insists it seeks peace and economic stability, its actions reveal growing frustration with the chaos on its doorstep. Xi’s meeting with Min Aung Hlaing may signal both a tightening of China's grip and a renewed push for a brokered outcome—one that protects its regional interests without fully endorsing the junta’s brutal tactics.

 

With ceasefires fraying and humanitarian needs surging, Myanmar’s future may now hinge more than ever on the mood in Beijing.

 

 

-2025-05-12

You can tell from the look on that guys face that hes a sellout with no remorse