Thursday, February 4, 2021

Scholar: Myanmar's coup may get Beijing's acquiescence. Call for sanctions on the CCP

Reporter : Luo Tingting / Editor: Wen Hui / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2021/02/04/a103046708.html / Direct translation

Image : On January 4, Burmese people protested the military coup in the streets. (STR/STR/AFP via Getty Images)


The Myanmar military coup continued to ferment. The Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Min were formally prosecuted on the 3rd and may face several years in prison. Some scholars have analyzed that the Myanmar coup may have the tacit approval and support of Beijing, and only sanctions against the CCP can solve the root cause of the problem.

On the third day of a military coup in Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, 75, was accused by the police of violating import and export laws and illegal possession of communication equipment. The Burmese military government continued to detain Aung San Suu Kyi until February 15. If convicted, Aung San Suu Kyi could face up to three years in prison.

At the same time, the deposed President Wen Min was also accused of violating the restrictions on gatherings during the CCP virus epidemic and was detained for two weeks.

The commander-in-chief of the Burmese National Defense Forces Min Aung Hlaing, who leads the regime, has established an 11-member military government that will rule in a state of emergency that lasts for a year. The Myanmar military has taken control of all infrastructure, suspended most TV broadcasts, and cancelled domestic and international flights.

Independent political analyst Larry Jagan told Deutsche Welle, “It is clear that the military is seeking legal means to target Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of the National League for Democracy in order to legalize their actions. In fact, this is seizing power.”

The Republican leader of the U.S. Senate, Mitch McConnell, pointed out in the plenary meeting that this is "a military coup and an attack on democracy." And criticizing the Chinese Communist Party's official media for issuing the wording of Myanmar's "cabinet reorganization" is a joke.

McConnell said, "There are two roads ahead of Myanmar. It can continue to grow into a modern democratic country that integrates with the global economy, or it can continue to become a corrupt and impoverished dictatorship in the shadow of the People's Republic of China. Myanmar The people have expressed their choice at the polling station. The threat of force must not be allowed to suppress their choice."

Azeem Ibrahim, director of the U.S. Center for Global Policy, said that the Myanmar coup may receive the acquiescence and support of the Chinese Communist Party, turning Myanmar into a pariah state and bringing it into the camp of an authoritarian state.

On the eve of the coup, the Chinese Communist Party’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Myanmar and met with the military leader Min Aung Lai. The CCP and the Burmese military “called each other brothers”.

Ibrahim wrote in "Foreign Policy" that this meeting may be a crucial moment in determining the coup in Myanmar, and Beijing may tacitly expressed its support in advance.

He said that Myanmar may eventually become another stronghold of Beijing’s ideological opposition to democracy. “Xi Jinping’s political system will shift from supporting dictators in Central Asia and crushing Hong Kong’s emerging democracy to a young democracy that actively overthrows neighboring countries. "

The publisher of the American "Political Risk" magazine, "Corr Analytics" (Corr Analytics) director Anders. Anders Corr said that if the coup can happen in Myanmar, it can happen anywhere. This may be part of Beijing's strategic layout in Southeast Asia and a blow to global democracies.

The Biden administration has defined the actions of the Myanmar military as a "military coup" and intends to impose economic sanctions on the Myanmar government. But Cole believes that economic sanctions on Myanmar will push it into the embrace of the CCP, and only sanctions on the CCP will help solve the root cause of the problem.

He believes that the United States can build a military corridor (Military Corridor) to help Rohingya return home, deploy peacekeeping forces and even unite allies to replace Min Aung Lai's army with Aung San Suu Kyi's democratic forces.

But he also said, “No one thinks that the United States will take military action against this. The United States needs to decide whether we want to ignore the democratic subversion in Myanmar. or ignore the genocide of the Rohingya or continue to do business with China. This will be a sign of whether Beijing will win dividends from its rampant dominance."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin denied Beijing’s acquiescence or support for Myanmar’s coup, calling it a “friendly neighbor” and hoped that all parties would “appropriately handle differences under the constitution and legal framework to maintain political and social stability”.

In fact, the CCP does not shy away from its close relationship with the Myanmar military. Prior to the meeting between Wang Yi and Min Aung Lai, Xi Jinping also held a meeting with the military leader Min Aung Lai when he visited Myanmar in January 2020. After the Burmese coup, the CCP and the United States and other Western countries clearly differed. They did not condemn the Burmese military or call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Wu Qiang, a former lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Tsinghua University, told Free Asia recently that the Burmese military’s power is more beneficial to Beijing. The CCP’s dams, oil pipeline construction and other projects in Myanmar will be subject to some restraints under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD, and the military government’s coming to power means that these restraints can be lifted.

On February 2, the United Nations Security Council held an online video conference to urgently discuss a joint statement drafted by the United Kingdom condemning the coup in Myanmar. However, due to interference from the CCP and Russia, the joint statement failed to pass, and the Security Council failed to take prompt action on the situation in Myanmar.

As early as 2017, when the United Nations condemned the "ethnic cleansing" of Rohingya by the Myanmar army, the CCP prevented the United Nations from imposing sanctions on Myanmar by avoiding "interference" in the internal affairs of other countries.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Hotel Review : Louis' Runway View Hotel, Phuket

 Review, photo copyright by : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA This hotel has the nearest walking distance to the Domestic Terminal of Phuket A...