Beijing said the head of a Myanmar ethnic minority armed group had come to China for “medical care” after news reports in its war-torn neighbour said he had been arrested on Chinese orders.
China is a major ally and arms supplier of Myanmar’s ruling junta but is also thought to maintain ties with ethnic minority armed groups that hold territory along the countries’ shared border where fighting often flares up.
Local media in Myanmar reported this week that Chinese authorities had arrested Peng Deren, the head of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), one of the strongest Myanmar rebel groups.
Asked to confirm the reports at a regular press conference on Tuesday, Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said Peng had “previously applied to come to China for medical care and is currently undergoing treatment and recuperation”.
Ministry spokesman Lin Jian gave no further details of Peng’s condition or whereabouts.
Peng – who is also known as Peng Dashun – keeps a low profile, typically declining media interviews.
The MNDAA is one of dozens of rebel groups in Myanmar that has battled the military for decades for autonomy and control of lucrative resources, including jade, timber and opium.
Myanmar’s current junta chief Min Aung Hlaing made a name for himself as a regional commander in 2009, pushing the MNDAA out of Laukkai, a town near the border with China.
But in January last year, the MNDAA recaptured Laukkai after more than 2,000 junta troops surrendered there in one of the military’s biggest defeats in decades.
In August, the MNDAA pushed even further, capturing the Shan state city of Lashio – around 100km from its traditional homeland, the Kokang region, around Laukkai. — AFP
