China’s new Special Envoy to Myanmar Meets Ethnic Armed Organizations

https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/chinas-new-special-envoy-to-myanmar-meets-ethnic-armed-organizations.html

 

I had to think about this a bit. China certainly isn't going to take orders from me. But I have a suggestion where they could really help Myanmar.

 

The Wa have an ethnic army in Eastern Myanmar, on China's border. China and the Wa get along fabulously. The other Burmese ethnic groups have tremendous respect for the Wa, probably because of its army. While the Wa army is much smaller than the army of the formal Burmese government, it is bigger than the armies of the other ethnic groups. While much of Myanmar is engaged in internal fighting, the Wa and the central Burmese government are in peaceful co-existence.

 

What China could do is leverage its relationship with the Wa, to encourage the other ethnic armies to seek peace with the central Burmese government, and maybe to even form a pan-ethnic national Burmese political party.

 

The ruling military wants to hold national elections in 2023. While the rebelling National Unity Government (NUG) is opposed to such elections, eventually they themselves will be forced to call for elections. And rather than deal with a multitude of fractious political parties, life would be saner with a smaller number of political parties. And the Wa could be the driving force behind one of them. This would take a lot of troops off of the battlefield.