Top Chinese intel official visits Myanmar

A top Chinese intelligence official has visited Myanmar to discuss military "cooperation" with the junta, Myanmar state media reported yesterday, the latest high-profile delegation sent by Beijing to its internationally isolated ally. Myanmar has been in turmoil since a 2021 coup that sparked renewed clashes with ethnic rebels and the formation of dozens of "People's Defence Forces" now battling the junta. It is the first publicly reported visit by a military official from China, a major ally and arms supplier of the junta, since the coup. Major-General Yang Yang, acting director-general of the Intelligence Bureau of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, met the junta's number two official, Soe Win, for talks on "cooperation between the two armies", state media said. The two also discussed "cooperation in peace, tranquillity and development programmes for border areas" at the Tuesday meeting, according to state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar.