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China ships arms to Burma
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Special to World Tribune.com
GEOSTRATEGY-DIRECT.COM
Thursday, December 26, 2001
China's military recently sent an arms shipment to Burma, highlighting efforts by the People's Liberation Army to back the ruling military junta there.
U.S. intelligence officials said the delivery was detected Dec. 15 as a 40-vehicle convoy that included artillery, gun carriages and communication equipment. The goods were delivered to the town of Lashio through the China-Burma border town of Mu-se.
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Burmese intelligence chief Gen. Khin Nyunt
vehicle.
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The equipment includes a Chinese-built artillery battery that is part of large shipments of military equipment to the State Peace and Development Council, as the ruling junta is called.
Additional equipment provided in recent months includes more than 300 armored personnel carriers that were sent in August. Eight truckloads of other military goods were sent in July.
Last year, Chinese military advisers took part in overseeing a military exercises by the Burmese forces in conducting combined land-air-sea maneuvers. The exercises also included Pakistani military officers.
The ties to Burma are part of China's southeast Asian strategy of developing ties to non-democratic, anti-Western nations along its borders.
Chinese military elements have been linked to drug trafficking in Thailand through Beijing's backing of the 25,000-strong Wa tribal army in Burma, which is a main supplier of methamphetamines.
One intelligence official said Wa militants have been trafficking in PLA weapons to other tribal groups in the region.
Burmese intelligence chief Gen. Khin Nyunt is said to be the key ally of Beijing within the Burmese junta.
Nhunt is dependent on the Wa and the drug trade to fuel his campaign to succeed Gen. Tan Shwe as junta supreme leader against rivals who are not as close to Beijing or the Wa. In addition, the Wa army, which was formerly the militant arm of the Beijing-backed Burmese Communist Party, has been commanded by Han Chinese PLA military officers since the 1950s.
Geostrategy-Direct, www.geostrategy-direct.com,
Jan. 1, 2002
Copyright © 2001 East West Services. All rights reserved.
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