Burma / Myanmar
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Conflicts - Tensions
Beijing’s support of Myanmar’s junta fuels resentment, resistance
Dr. Miemie Winn Byrd The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) backing of Myanmar’s brutal, highly unpopular and illegitimate military junta further exposes Beijing’s hypocrisy and heavy-handed interference in the region. In mid-August 2024, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi met with the head of Myanmar’s junta and reiterated the PRC’s support for its efforts “in implementing the five-point roadmap for ensuring…
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Conflicts - Tensions
Myanmar military on verge of falling from power, analysts say
Dr. Miemie Winn Byrd The Myanmar military junta faces imminent collapse, even though many analysts believed it was “too big to fail” at the start of the country’s armed resistance to restore democracy. The junta seized power in a February 2021 coup, but the resistance coalition’s ongoing Operation 1027, named for its launch date of October 27, 2023, has weakened…
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Conflicts - Tensions
Myanmar school attacks rise amid intensified fighting, researchers say
The Associated Press Intensified fighting in Myanmar’s civil war has brought a sharp increase in destructive attacks on schools, a group that monitors armed conflict in the Southeast Asian nation said. Myanmar Witness said the attacks further strained Myanmar’s fractured school system, taking away education for millions of children who have also been forced to flee their homes, miss vaccinations…
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Illicit Activity
Vietnam improves in human trafficking fight
Radio Free Asia For the second year in a row, Vietnam’s ranking improved in the United States’ annual Trafficking in Persons report, and the country is no longer considered among Asia’s worst for human trafficking, a list that includes the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Cambodia, Myanmar and North Korea. The June 2024 report from the U.S. State Department focuses…
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Global Commons
Thailand seeks to boost humanitarian aid to Myanmar
Benar News Thailand is looking to expand humanitarian aid to Myanmar as fighting between military junta forces and rebels intensifies across the border in Kayin state, a Thai Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman said recently. The Thai government will collaborate with international organizations to deliver aid, spokesman Nikorndej Balankura said. “As a neighboring country, Thailand supports dialogue for reconciliation, leading to…
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Climate
Scientists Identify 380 More Species in Mekong Region
Radio Free Asia An aggressive color-changing lizard, a venomous snake named after a goddess in Chinese mythology and a camouflaging green frog found only in the forested limestone mountains of northeastern Vietnam were among the hundreds of plant and animal species discovered in the Mekong River region in the past two years, researchers announced in May 2023. Hundreds of scientists…
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Conflicts - Tensions
Human rights groups decry PRC’s continued abuses
FORUM Staff Human rights groups are reiterating concerns over the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) treatment of Chinese citizens and those of other countries. Organizations including Human Rights Watch (HRW), the United Nations Human Rights Office and Safeguard Defenders, a Madrid-based human rights organization, recently published reports covering a range of abuses, from “collective punishment” of Chinese citizens to funding…
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Features
Unifying efforts Against The Military Junta
Lt. Col. (Ret.) Dr. Miemie Winn Byrd/Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies Two years after seizing power in a coup, the Myanmar military is on the verge of collapse. Coup plotters have failed to gain control of the country since they overthrew its democratically elected government and detained its leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and other high-ranking…
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Climate
PRC’s hydroelectric dams threaten Mekong River
FORUM Staff The Mekong River stretches nearly 5,000 kilometers from the Tibetan plateau, winding through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and, ultimately, Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. The river, the longest in Southeast Asia, carries nutrient-rich sediment essential to the livelihoods of those who rely on the waterway for agriculture and fisheries. But the river is drying up. In recent years, its water…
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Conflicts - Tensions
‘Malacca Dilemma’ drives PRC policies, aggression
FORUM Staff The People’s Republic of China (PRC) remains heavily dependent on foreign energy imports, more than 70% of which must pass through the congested Malacca Strait. Beijing has sought to develop alternative trade routes to mitigate this vulnerability, defined as the “Malacca Dilemma” in 2003 by then-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Hu Jintao. Blockades of the channel connecting…
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