Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-hxdxx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-17T04:36:17.213Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

China and the February 1, 2021 Coup d'Etat in Burma: Beijing's Geopolitical Nightmare

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Despite its oft-stated commitment to non-interference in the domestic affairs of foreign countries, the People's Republic of China has intervened on many levels in Burma's conflict-ridden society, both before and after 1988. It is in 2021 Burma's largest economic partner in terms of trade, aid and investment, and has fit Burma into its continent- and ocean-spanning One Belt/One Road Initiative. In chronically unstable border areas, it has a major influence on armed insurgent groups such as the Kokang Group and the United Wa State Army. Beijing's top priority has been to ensure political stability, and it found Aung San Suu Kyi a willing and able partner after she became “State Counselor” in 2016. But the coup d'etat of February 1, 2021 has cast a shadow over the Beijing-Naypyidaw relationship and Burma's future.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2021

References

San, Aung Kyi, Suu. 1996. “Letter from Burma.” Mainichi Daily News, April 22, p. 3.Google Scholar
Shihong, Bi. N.d. “The Economic Relations of Myanmar-China.” Chiba, Japan: Institute for Developing Economies.Google Scholar
“China again seeks Myanmar regime's Assurances on Oil, Gas Pipelines.” 2021. The Irrawaddy, April 2 at www.irrawaddy.com accessed on 04.10.2021.Google Scholar
“‘China Get Out of Myanmar’ Say Pro-Democracy Supporters.” 2021. The Irrawaddy, April 2 at www.irrawaddy.com accessed 04.10.2021.Google Scholar
“Debunking the Myth of Debt-Trap Diplomacy.” 2020. Research Paper, August 19. London: Chatham House at www.chathamhouse.org accessed on 04.06.2021.Google Scholar
Raw, Lahpai Seng. 2019. “China's Belt & Road Initiative: a Cautionary Tale for the Kachins.” January 10. Amsterdam: Transnational Institute.Google Scholar
Lintner, Bertil. 2021. “China's Myanmar Dilemma grows deep and wide.” Asia Times, March 25, at www.asiatimes.com accessed on 04.11.2021.Google Scholar
Lintner, Bertil. 1999. Burma in Revolt: Opium and Insurgency since 1948. Chiang Mai: Silkworm.Google Scholar
Lintner, Bertil. 1993. “Rocks and a Hard Place.” Far Eastern Economic Review, September 9, p. 26.Google Scholar
Macan-Markar, Marwaan. 2021. “China treads lightly on Myanmar coup with billions at stake.” Nikkei Asia, March 5 accessed on 03-11-2021.Google Scholar
Atsuko, Mizuno. 2016. “Economic Relations between Myanmar and China.” Pp. 195224 in Okada, Konosuke, ed. The Myanmar Economy: Past, Present and Prospects. Tokyo: Springer Japan.Google Scholar
Maung, Mya. 1992. Totalitarianism in Burma: Prospects for Economic Development. New York: Paragon House.Google Scholar
“Myanmar heading towards a 'full-blown conflict, UN rights chief warns.” 2021. UN News, April 13, at www.news.un.org accessed 04.14.2021.Google Scholar
Oo, Dominic. 2021. “China's Interests going up in Flames in Myanmar.” Asia Times, March 16, at www.asiatimes.com accessed on 04.12.2021.Google Scholar
Seekins, Donald M. 2019. “‘Centering the City’: the Upattasanti Pagoda as Symbolic Space in Myanmar's new capital of Naypyidaw.” Pp. 81106 in Bekkering, Henco, et al. eds. Ideas of the City in Asian Settings. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Seekins, Donald M. 2017. Historical Dictionary of Burma (Myanmar). 2nd edition. Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seekins, Donald M. 2011. State and Society in Modern Rangoon. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Seekins, Donald M. 2007. Burma and Japan since 1940: from ‘Co-Prosperity’ to ‘Quiet Dialogue.’ Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Press.Google Scholar
Seekins, Donald M.Burma-China Relations: playing with Fire.” Asian Survey, Vol. 37:6, June, pp. 525539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“Selling the Silk Road Spirit: China's Belt and Road Initiative in Myanmar.” 2019. Myanmar Policy Briefing, No. 22, November. Amsterdam: Transnational Institute.Google Scholar
Yun, Sun. 2021. “The Myanmar Coup, China and the US.” Interview with the National Committee on US-China Relations on YouTube, March 8, accessed 03.09.2021.Google Scholar
Yun, Sun. 2012. “China in the Changing Myanmar.” Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, Vol. 31:4, pp. 5177.Google Scholar
Thant Myint-U. 2020. The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Thaw Kaung, U. 2004. “Preliminary Survey of Penang-Myanmar Relations from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries.” Pp. 163186 in Selected Writings of U Thaw Kaung. Rangoon: Myanmar Historical Commission.Google Scholar