Over the past month Myanmar rebels have been engaging in conflicts with the Chinese near the China-Myanmar border. The Myanmar rebel group is called The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA). On Sunday, March 15, the Chinese reported a bombing that came from a Myanmar aircraft.
This bombing killed 4. The Chinese defense ministry responded to the attack with this statement:
“The Myanmar side must recognize the seriousness of the issue, seriously deal with this incident, punish those who caused the trouble, apologize and pay compensation to family members, and explain themselves to China.”
This conflict has caused many people to flee northern Myanmar in to China. China has called on Myanmar to stop the conflicts, but the tension seems to be running high. The Myanmar government said that Chinese mercenaries have been launching attacks into Myanmar, but China has denied these allegations. In response to the bombing, China pledged to retaliate if there was a repeat attack.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/15/us-china-myanmar-idUSKBN0MB03F20150315
Myanmar has been fighting with Chinese ethnic forces for more than a month, killing several hundred soldiers and insurgents (47 Myanmar soldiers died this week solely). Its official denied that any bomb from its forces had fallen in China and said the rebels might have fired into China to create “misunderstanding” between the two countries.
So why does this spill over to China? Are those fighting ethnic Chinese? or a minority that has populations on both sides of the border?
Note that (from memory…) in the 20th century this border area was a refuge for a couple Chinese warlords who financed their operations by smuggling opium. Of course Ahn Ta can tell the class about the China-Vietnam war, in which the Chinese were defeated.