Officials from Burma's Ministry of Electric Power (1) and two Chinese companies—Hanergy Holding Group Ltd and Goldwater Resources Ltd—attend a signing ceremony for the Upper Salween (Kunglong) Hydropower project. (Photo: MNA) Beijing's importance to Burma's ruling regime was in the spotlight today, as state-run media gave extensive coverage to a new Sino-Burmese hydropower project and Chinese military officials attended a meeting between Burmese negotiators and ethnic Wa leaders over the issue of forming border guard forces.
All three official mouthpieces of the regime carried front page stories covering a signing ceremony on Thursday to mark an agreement between Burma’s Ministry of Electric Power (1) and two Chinese companies—Hanergy Holding Group Ltd and Goldwater Resources Ltd—involved in the Upper Salween (Kunglong) Hydropower project.
The project, the second largest of its kind on the Salween River, with a projected energy-generating capacity of 2,400 kilowatts (less than half that of the 7,100-kilowatt Tasang dam), will be located in Kunglong, near the Chinese border and the territory of the cease-fire United Wa State Army (UWSA).
While officials of the Chinese companies traveled to Naypyidaw for the signing ceremony, a UWSA delegation led by leader Bao Youxiang went to Tangyan, controlled by the Burmese army, to meet with the junta’s top negotiator, Lt-Gen Ye Myint, to discuss the regime's plan to dismantle cease-fire armies and reconstitute them as border guard forces under Burmese command.
According to sources on the Sino-Burmese border, Bao Youxiang was accompanied by at least three Chinese military officials during his meeting with Ye Myint, who is also the regime's military intelligence chief, on Thursday.
It was the Wa leader's first trip to Burmese army-controlled territory since junta troops overran the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, an ethnic Kokang army allied to the UWSA, in late August 2009.
In November, Bao Youxiang sent a letter to Ye Myint explaining why the UWSA could not accept the border guard force plan. A source close to the UWSA delegation said that he reiterated his position on Thursday.
Bao Youxiang’s decision to go to Tangyan came after Chinese officials pressured the UWSA to resume talks with the junta, the source said, adding that he agreed only after Chinese officials promised to ensure his safety.
Earlier this month, Ye Myint offered to meet with the Wa leader in Lashio, the headquarters of the Burmese army’s Northeast Regional Military Command. Bao Youxiang declined the invitation, citing health reasons. The UWSA said talks could be held in Wa territory, but Ye Myint rejected the offer.
Meanwhile, negotiations between Ye Myint and the eastern Shan State-based National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) appear to be on hold, after the group's leader Sai Lin (also known as Lin Mingxian) said that he could not travel to to Kengtung, the headquarters of the Triangle Regional Military Command, for a planned meeting.
However, on Thursday, three senior NDAA officials—two vice presidents, Hsan Per and Hsang Lu, and Chief of Staff Kham Mawng—met Col Than Htut Thein, a chief of staff from Kengtung, in Mongyu, near the NDAA's Mongla headquarters.
According to The Shan Herald Agency for News, Than Htut Thein pressured the NDAA officials to give the border guard force idea a nod by saying that time was running out. He did not, however, say whether the junta would resolve the issue politically or militarily.
Earlier this week, the junta’s prime minister, Gen Thein Sein, traveled to Kachin State along with Lt-Gen Tha Aye, chief of the army’s Bureau of Special Operations (1), which oversees the north, northwest and central regional military commands.
The trip was reportedly related to planned talks with the Kachin Independence Organization, another cease-fire group that is resisting calls to transform its armed wing into a border guard force.
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