Myanmar’s military has lost control over a strategic town on the Chinese border following days of clashes with armed ethnic groups in what analysts say that it is the biggest military challenge for the regime it is currently facing after seizing power.
Fighting has raged since October 28, 2023, across the northern Shan State with an alliance of ethnic groups claiming to have seized four towns blocked trade routes to China and captured dozens of military outposts.
The Geography
The remoteness of the hilly, rugged, jungle clad terrain is home to oil and gas pipelines which transports energy resources to China and patchy communications make it difficult to verify casualty numbers in the fighting, which the United Nations feared as displaced thousands.
Importance of Chinshwehaw
The Government, administrative organisations, ad security forces were no longer present in the trade hubs of Chinshwehaw which borders China’s Yunnan Province, junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said in a statement. More than a quarter of Myanmar’s 1.8 billion border trade with China passed through Chinshwehaw between April and September 2023, reported by the media, citing the commerce ministry.
Ethnic Groups and Strategic Towns
The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance (MNDAA),the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army said on November 2, 2023 that they had control over towns of Hpaung Seng, Hsenwi, and Kyukok. The clashes were ongoing in Kunlong, Hsenwi, the statement said without giving any details about casualties.
Ceasefire
On November 2, 2023, China called in for an immediate ceasefire in the northern Shan State, home to a planned billion-dollar rail link in its Belt ad Road Initiative (BRI) project. A resident of Hsenwi, around 90km (55 miles) from Chinshwehaw told a media agency that some junta troops remained in the town. The Internet was patchy and thousands of people arrived into the town seeking safety and shelter, the resident said asking for anonymity for security reasons.
The price of rice and some commodities brought in from Southern Myanmar had doubled at some shops in Muse, a trade hub north of Hsenwi on the China border, a resident of Muse told the news agency. There was no fighting in or around the town, they said and they wished to remain anonymous for security reasons.
Clashes have taken place at 10 locations of the northern Shan State over the past six days, the junta spokesman said, without ,mentioning anything about the casualties. He accused three armed groups of blowing up of power stations, bridges, destroying transportation routes without providing details.
The Displacement
“The Military has not faced this type of lightning offensive since the coup, independent analyst David Matheson told the media agency. “It was a stunning military and intelligence failure that illustrates how the Burmese army really is,” he said.
Myanmar’s borderlands are home to more than a dozen ethnic armed groups, some of which have fought the military fro decades for the sole purpose of autonomy and control of lucrative resources. Some have trained and equipped newer Peoples Defence Forces that have sprung up since 2021 coup and the military’s brutal crackdown on dissent.
Analysts have said that both sides are inflating and deflating casualties’ figures. The United Nations have mentioned that thousands of people have been displaced and some have even crossed the border and entered China.
On October 31, 2023, China’s Minister for public security met the Junta Chief Min Aung Hlaing in the capital Naypyidaw, a Myanmar media said for a second day of talks with top Junta officials about the clashes.
China is a main ally and major arms supplier of the junta and has refused to label its 2021 power capture as a coup. Beijing also maintains ties with ethnic armed groups along its borders with Myanmar, home to Chinese communities who use Chinese communities who use Chinese SIM cards and currency.
