The military takeover in Myanmar and detention of Aung San Suu Kyi was "a major cabinet reshuffle" accowrding to Chinese state media, who rolled out the euphemisms to avoid calling a coup a coup.

As democratic leaders around the world slammed the Burmese military and President Joe Biden said the US was "taking note" of who was standing up for Myanmar's people, China's communist leadership took a softly-softly approach.

Beijing called for all parties in Myanmar to "resolve their differences", and the official Xinhua news agency on Monday described the military replacing elected ministers after the coup as a "major cabinet reshuffle".

The nationalist Global Times meanwhile quoted unnamed experts as saying the generals' power-grab could be seen as "an adjustment to the country's dysfunctional power structure".