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China's Myanmar consulate hit with explosive device: Junta chief to visit China next month
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China's Myanmar consulate hit with explosive device: Junta chief to visit China next month
by AFP Staff Writers
Bangkok (AFP) Oct 19, 2024

China's consulate in Myanmar's city of Mandalay was attacked with an explosive device, local media said Saturday, adding that no deaths or injuries were reported.

The blast occurred at the consulate office in central Mandalay, south of the sprawling Royal Palace, around 7 pm Friday (1230 GMT Friday), local media said.

China is a major ally and arms supplier to Myanmar's junta, but it also maintains ties with ethnic groups fighting the military in Myanmar's northern Shan state, according to analysts.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military deposed the government of Aung San Suu Kyi and seized power in 2021.

A statement from the junta on Saturday night blamed "terrorists" for the incident, which it said it was investigating in cooperation with consulate officials.

It said security had found "a blast" had occurred and that it was "raising the necessary security measures".

"About two feet of clay tiles of the roof of the two-storey building were damaged," the statement said.

A Myanmar official in Mandalay confirmed to AFP there had been "an incident at the Chinese consulate office compound in Mandalay late evening yesterday".

"There was no one injured," the official said, without specifying the nature of the incident.

The Irrawaddy outlet reported a grenade had been thrown at the compound, which is usually guarded by members of Myanmar's security forces.

The Voice of Myanmar newspaper reported the consulate had been hit by an unidentified "explosion" without giving details.

China's embassy in Yangon did not respond to AFP's queries.

Myanmar junta chief to travel to China next month: sources close to military
Yangon (AFP) Oct 16, 2024 - Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing will travel to close ally China next month, two sources close to the military told AFP Wednesday, in what would be his first known trip there since he led a coup in 2021.

Min Aung Hlaing "is planning to go China in November... the trip has been planned since Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi visited Myanmar" in August, a source close to the military said.

"He (Min Aung Hlaing) will visit China next month," another source said.

Both sources requested anonymity to talk to the media.

AFP has contacted China's embassy in Yangon for comment.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said "I currently have no information to provide on your question", when asked about the trip at a regular press briefing on Wednesday.

Beijing is a major ally and arms supplier of the internationally isolated junta that is battling opponents across the country following its coup in 2021.

Analysts say Beijing also maintains ties with Myanmar ethnic armed groups that hold territory near its border.

Some of those groups have seized territory from the junta in northern Shan state, disrupting traffic along a vital trade highway to China.

Shan state borders China's Yunnan province and is a vital piece of Beijing's trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative.

Relations between Beijing and Naypyidaw cooled last year over the junta's failure to crack down on online scam compounds in Myanmar's borderlands targeting Chinese citizens.

The compounds were staffed by citizens of China and other countries who were often trafficked and forced to work swindling their compatriots in an industry analysts say is worth billions.

Analysts suggest Beijing later gave tacit approval to an offensive by an alliance of ethnic rebel groups across Shan state, which the alliance said was launched partly to root out the scam compounds.

In August, China said it supports the junta's plan to hold fresh elections and return the conflict-torn country to a "democratic transition".

Opponents say the polls will be neither free nor fair, with many opposition parties banned and clashes occurring across much of the country.

Min Aung Hlaing has visited Russia -- another major ally and arms supplier -- several times since the coup, including a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in 2022.

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