The Myanmar Coup and China

There have been repeated hints made in Western media that Beijing is somehow behind the coup in Myanmar (Burma). While the ruling party (CCP) of China is undoubtedly an evil organisation, I was immediately sceptical of the claims. Once again, just because Xi Jinping is an evil persecutor of the Church does not mean that we as Christians need to hop on to the Western propaganda bandwagon. We need to hold the truth and remember that just because the Chinese government is evil – it does not follow that Western powers like the US or UK are somehow 'good'.

More than anything I would say China desires stability in Myanmar. The controversies over the Rohingya have brought an unwelcome Western spotlight onto the country. Under the auspices of humanitarian concern the West frequently utilises such incidents to its advantage – and likewise ignores them when it's convenient, or deflects them as was the case with the 2015 immigration crisis in Europe.

China is trying to establish its OBOR footprint and neighbouring Myanmar certainly plays a role in the plan. Humanitarian trouble which invites Western eyes, not to mention the threat of Western intervention, is the absolute last thing China would want on its southern border.

Additionally under the present coup scenario, Aung San Suu Kyi has been once more turned into a hero and champion of Western democratic values. She long was able to maintain that narrative while she spent years in opposition and under house arrest. But once in power her true colours began to show and she did nothing to prevent, hinder, or even publically question the policies of the Tatmadaw or Burmese military hierarchy. The Nobel laureate became a pariah and there was talk of her facing charges in the ICC for facilitating and helping to cover up what many believed to be a genocide. The coup has effectively erased this history and turned her back into a darling of the West.

Would Beijing have wanted such a development? It seems highly unlikely.

Now once again Western media is (rather disingenuously) focused on democracy and human rights, and the power of grass roots resistance. Contrast this with the previous scenario in which there was stability and the Suu Kyi administration was easily weathering the negative coverage regarding the Rohingya crisis – coverage that had all but faded away.

The China angle being pursued by Western media outlets is part of a propaganda campaign that is painting China as the meddler and troublemaker within the wider Asia theatre. China is meant to look like the aggressor.

This has been further fueled by the conveniently leaked reports from UN Security Council deliberations in which both China and Russia declined to be party to any kind of statement that condemned the coup. They story was clearly meant to imply that both nations (or at least China) supported the military action.

The truth is China is very reticent to open doors to Western involvement on its borders, especially at the present. And again the lessons of history rear their head. How many in the West remember Kuomintang activities in Burma, the abandoned plot for their invasion of China during the Korean War, the US record of support for Burmese rebel groups, and certainly the CIA's history in the Golden Triangle up through the Vietnam era?

China doesn't want the US to get a stronger foothold in Myanmar. They know what it will lead to and thus while they're less than thrilled with the internal political situation that led to the military takeover – the suggestion of Western involvement under the auspices of the UN is unpalatable. And thus Beijing was not going to allow itself to fall into a trap at the Security Council. This may be tragic but the Security Council is hardly an apolitical forum and its very structure is (to the eyes of many) a symbol of great power corruption and hijacking of the UN Charter.

China is involved in the politics of the region and Burma in particular. Is this surprising? Beijing certainly throws its weight around but there's no evidence to suggest they're behind the coup. And that said, all their activities can't hold a candle to the United States which like China has been involved in Burmese politics for decades. Will the US media report that? If ever even mentioned, you can be sure the media will whitewash the coverage and in the minds of American elites – the US as the 'Exceptional Nation' has the right and prerogative to do such things. Other nations do not and the great sin of those (like me) is that we make the mistake of arguing for moral equivalence – in other words that nations like China and the US should be held to the same standard. In terms of American ideology this is heresy and anyone who is going to be faithful to the truth (such as Christians) – must be reckoned a heretic in terms of American ideology. That fact that most American Christians have embraced the mindset and assumptions of the American Establishment only indicate just how deluded is their judgment and how far removed they are from the revealed religion of the New Testament – the gospel of the Kingdom. Not only are their ethics distorted, their very thinking has become deformed.