The Lashio residents of Myanmar, who were displaced by fighting between the Junta and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), have called on China to stop interfering in the country’s internal affairs.

The locals are holding a ‘silent protest’ against the upcoming China-brokered talks to be held between the Junta and MNDAA, distributing posters to highlight Beijing’s growing interference in the country’s affairs.

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“Lashio residents do not want the rebels to surrender their town to the regime. The upcoming talks are expected to focus primarily on Lashio. People here don’t want to live under the military regime again. Under the MNDAA administration, they feel safe and free. That’s why they want the troops to stay,” Myanmar’s leading media outlet Irrawaddy quoted a protester as saying.

“We are calling on China, as a foreign country, to respect the Myanmar people’s sovereignty. China’s support for the Junta only harms the people. We demand that the Chinese government stop assisting the military regime,” said another protestor.

The residents of the region fled in large numbers after the MNDAA and allied forces launched their assault in July last year. Later, the MNDAA installed its administration in Lashio, restoring telecommunications, overseeing reconstruction work and providing healthcare services. However, China closed borders with MNDAA-controlled territory and arrested its leader to pressure the ethnic army to stop fighting the regime, the local media reported.

In January, the ethnic army signed a truce with the regime during the seventh round of China-brokered talks in Kunming according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

China’s influence in the region has been growing in Myanmar due its proximity with the military Junta. Earlier this month, a top expert on security dynamics in Southeast Asia, especially in and around Myanmar, also voiced her concerns over growing Chinese assertiveness in the region.

Miemie Winn Byrd, a security analyst from Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies (APCSS), stated that the presence of Chinese security companies in Myanmar under the military Junta’s private security laws poses a major threat of turning the country into a “client state”.

“These Chinese firms, therefore, can manipulate both political and economic spheres of Myanmar, and further, the sovereignty of the country can be compromised,” Byrd told Irrawaddy in an extensive interview.

Accusing the current regime of trading with Chinese companies for a short-term gain, Byrd mentioned that Myanmar’s geographical location offers China an alternative to their Malacca dilemma.

“80 per cent of China’s oil imports pass through the Malacca Strait and that makes them vulnerable in times of war. So, they are trying to find an alternative way to bypass the Malacca Strait and Myanmar is the only solution to their problem. Increasing footprints in Myanmar would in turn help them to dominate the Indo-Pacific,” the analyst detailed.