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China-Japan-Koreas
Burma's Nasty Little War on China's Border: The View from the Front
2015-03-20
[Daily Beast] The Burmese army is fighting a drug lord's troops. Burmese refugees are fleeing into China. The Chinese government isn't sure what to do about it.

NANSAN, China -- Nearly every night, just across the frontier in Burma's Shan State, the hills of Kokang are on fire. It stains the fog of Yunnan's mountains, and the border villages see eight hours of twilight. Yet the mood is oddly serene. Locals don't seem too worried about conflict brewing at their doorstep. On the roof of one hotel, the staff has set up a television set so they can keep up with their favorite late-night programs, and they glance only occasionally toward the orange glow, usually as an afterthought to something they hear from that direction. They simply trust that the Burmese will keep the killing to their own side of the border, but recent events suggest otherwise.
Posted by:Besoeker

#6  Sounds like old-school war-lordary.
Posted by: Shipman   2015-03-20 18:35  

#5  Nothing to do with the PLA's effectiveness. This is the more likely explanation:

The faction of the MNDAA that is battling the Burmese army is nominally led by Peng Jiasheng, also known as Pheung Kya Shin, an octogenarian and ethnically Chinese commander who maintains about 1,000 troops... They were formerly part of the Communist Party of Burma, which was supported by Beijing... Peng’s faction of the MNDAA was defeated and scattered, and he allegedly went into exile in China...The border between China and Burma is porous. Many ethnic Han-Chinese families have members on both sides of the border, and cross-border trade is common. Chinese influence can be seen everywhere in Burmese border towns

Factor in the Chinese' government's ineffectiveness in the region, and one gets a pretty good picture.
Posted by: Pappy   2015-03-20 11:54  

#4  I didn't get that from the article, will reread.
Posted by: Shipman   2015-03-20 09:38  

#3  The PLA maybe huge but it is poorly equipped and even more poorly lead. The Vietnamese gave em a bloody nose back in the 80's. Now the Burmese wont put up with their shit. Don't know about Laos but I think the other SE Asian countries would come to their support. If the PLA ever tried to take on India they would be slaughtered. Same for Taiwan. Their only play is south into the South China Sea, short term, or north to Siberia, long term. They will be seriously challenged if they go into the south. My take is they will wait for demographics to decimate and depopulate the Russians and head north into Siberia, bout 20 years from now.
Posted by: Albert Thravins4110   2015-03-20 02:41  

#2  Can Russia still hold the Russian Far East iff Radical Islam's Hard Boyz do indeed strike at Russia's ex-SSR Central Asia -Stans, + ultimately Central-Middle Russia itself???

Above also read, CHINA + PLA???
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2015-03-20 01:29  

#1  * MANILA TIMES > BORDER CONFLICT UNLIKELY TO MOVE CHINA TO DO A "UKRAINE" IN MYANMAR.

Never say never iff the Hard Boyz start destabilizing India andor Se Asia.

versus

* ABC-CBN NEWS > US SENATORS SEEK US STRATEGY TO STOP CHINESE SOUTH CHINA SEA RECLAMATIONS.

The Fed must mean STRATEGEERY???

China's moves in SCS posing DIRECT CHALLENGE to US + UNCLOS + International Community.

* HBARAT RAKSHAK > PHILIPPINES UNCOVERS NEW CHINESE CONTRUCTION IN SPRATLEYS - NIKKEI ASIAN REVIEW.

* GMA NEWS > CHINESE FORCES MAY STAY IN WEST PH SEA STRUCTURES, PH LAWMAKER WARNS.

* TOPIX > RESURGENT CHINESE INTEREST IN KRA CANAL PROJECT ACROSS SOUTHERN THAILAND MAY THREATEN MYANMAR'S DAWEI PROJECT.

* SAME > CHANGING THE TALIBAN? PRO-ISIS [ISLAMIC STATE-leaning] MILITANT FACTIONS [AFPAK] COULD ALTER LANDSCAPE OF ASIAN INSURGENCIES.

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > POSTER THREAD: US WILL LOSE INFLUENCE IN ASIA IFF VIETNAM IS UNABLE TO KEEP PRESENCE IN SOUTH CHINA SEA.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2015-03-20 01:07  

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