Fresh fighting broke out yesterday between Myanmar’s junta and ethnic rebels forcing a continued flow of refugees into China, where a bomb killed one person, witnesses and state media said.
Clashes in Myanmar’s remote northeast have driven up to 30,000 refugees across the border in recent weeks, the UN has said, causing China to issue a rare admonishment to its neighbor and ally to resolve the conflict.
Battles that erupted this week in Kokang, a mainly ethnic Chinese region of Myanmar’s Shan state, have violated a 20-year ceasefire and analysts have warned the fighting could escalate into full-scale civil war.
Refugees were still crossing the border yesterday, said Khuensai Jaiyen, editor of the Shan Herald Agency for News.
“It’s not like the other day, we’re not hearing of too many but they are still crossing,” he said.
The state-run China Daily, quoting a Chinese Red Cross official, said a bomb was thrown across the border on Friday, killing one and injuring several others in a remote mountainous region of China’s Yunnan Province.
Only sketchy details of the fighting in Myanmar emerged yesterday, but China’s Global Times said one of its correspondents in the area witnessed “fierce” gunfire between the Kokang ethnic army and government forces.
The state newspaper said Chinese border guards had been put on alert to prevent the conflict from spreading to China.
A resident of China’s Zhenkang County on the border, who gave only his surname Xie, said he heard gunfire in the distance early yesterday.
“It was pretty loud. Everybody could hear it. I heard it for about an hour,” he said.
A statement from the Chinese foreign ministry on Friday said it “hopes that Myanmar can appropriately solve its relevant internal problems and safeguard the stability of the China-Myanmar border.”
It also urged its neighbor “to protect the safety and legal rights of Chinese citizens in Myanmar”.
China is one of the few allies of Myanmar’s isolated junta, its main source of military hardware and a major consumer of its vast natural resources, despite Western concerns over the military-ruled nation’s rights record.
Refugees who had crossed to the border town of Nansan were being housed in tents or other makeshift shelters and authorities were providing them blankets, medical care and other necessities, Chinese state media reports said.
The Global Times quoted Kokang leader Peng Jiasheng (彭家聲) as saying in an interview that his forces had killed more than 30 Myanmar government soldiers and captured another 50. It did not give his location.
The Washington-based US Campaign for Burma, which uses Myanmar’s former name, also said late on Friday around 30 junta soldiers had been killed with another 40 injured and 20 missing, citing local sources and ethnic media.
It said around 7,000 junta troops were now in the region, where they had at least eight military encounters with rebel groups on Thursday and Friday.
Win Min, a Thailand-based Myanmar analyst and academic, said tensions had grown because the junta was trying to exert control ahead of the elections next year.
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
FLOOD RECOVERY: “Post-Typhoon Danas reconstruction special act” is expected to be approved on Thursday, the premier said, adding the flood control in affected areas would be prioritized About 200cm of rainfall fell in parts of southern Taiwan from Monday last week to 9am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Kaohsiung’s Taoyuan District (桃源) saw total rainfall of 2,205mm, while Pingtung County’s Sandimen Township (三地門) had 2,060.5mm and Tainan’s Nanhua District (南化) 1,833mm, according to CWA data. Meanwhile, Alishan (阿里山) in Chiayi County saw 1,688mm of accumulated rain and Yunlin County’s Caoling (草嶺) had 1,025mm. The Pingtung County Government said that 831 local residents have been pre-emptively evacuated from mountainous areas. A total of 576 are staying with relatives in low-lying areas, while the other 255 are in shelters. CWA forecaster
RSS