Reuters revealed on 12 June that China had been using its proxy militant organization in Myanmar’s Shan state to control and exploit local rare earth mines. The excavated minerals are transported to China across the border by trucks.
The militant organization Beijing is using for this task is the United Wa State Army (UWSA). It has controlled a portion of the Shan state for decades, maintains a military “force of between 30,000 and 35,000 personnel,” and has kept a ceasefire with Myanmar government for the last 35 years.
The UWSA has “long-standing commercial and military links with China.” Its military force is equipped with the Chinese weapons, and it “functions as a key instrument for China to maintain strategic leverage along the Myanmar-China border and exert influence over other ethnic armed groups.”
Efforts Category: China’s Covert Force in Myanmar
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