China Undermines Its Interests By Boosting Support For Myanmar’s Faltering Junta – Analysis

Zachary Abuza

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China borders 14 countries, tied with Russia for the most in the world, and Beijing takes great pains to ensure the security of its interests and defend against conflicts from spilling over. Despite that, China’s Myanmar policy is based on faulty assumptions and is undermining its own interests.

China’s policy since the February 2021 coup – which Beijing simply labeled a change in government – has never been good. Nonetheless, it refrained from offering initial support for the State Administrative Council (SAC), as the junta formally calls itself, and put pressure on them not to ban the National League for Democracy, which they ultimately did in March 2023.

For the first two years, Beijing clearly hedged their bets. But since then, the Chinese have doubled down on the junta.

China continues to sell weapons, and there is evidence that Chinese technicians are working in Myanmar’s defense industries. There is clearly some technology sharing. A new shell designed for drone warfare is a copy of a Chinese-produced munition.