Myanmar protesters accuse China of backing coup plotters

Activists allege Beijing setting up ‘great firewall’ and call for boycott of Chinese products.

Since a week ago, Myanmar social media has been alight with rumours after a series of cargo flights confirmed by flight tracker websites from the Chinese city of Kunming landed in Yangon when the country’s airspace was restricted.

Protesters have speculated that the flights contained internet-blocking information technology software, or Chinese soldiers.

Anti-coup demonstrators have massed outside the Chinese embassy in Yangon over the past week, holding placards attacking Beijing or showing President Xi Jinping dangling senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the junta chief, by marionette strings.

Source: FT #Feb17

https://www.ft.com/content/43e6ecfe-081a-4390-aa18-154ec87ff764

#MyanmarCoup #ChinaBackMyanmarCoup #ChinaFireWall

Chinese Companies Supplying Arms, Military Equipment to Myanmar: Group

The five largest suppliers are Chinese state-owned enterprises, including China North Industries Group (NORINCO), the Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC), the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC), the China Aerospace Science & Industry Corp. (CASIC), and the China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corporation (CATIC).

More than a dozen other suppliers were funded from China or Hong Kong.

Chairman of the Myanmar-Burma Assistance Association Zhang Shengqi said that it was not a secret China supplying arms to the Myanmar military and the stability of Myanmar directly impacted China's national interest and its security.

Source: RFA #Feb18

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/supplying-02182021091648.html

#Myanmar #ChinaMilitary #ChinaSupportMyanmarCoup #MyanmarCoup

Committee to Protect Journalists: At least 32 journalists jailed, Myanmar’s Fake News Act turns independent reporting into a crime.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an organization concerned with the state of press freedom worldwide, has released a report on the state of press freedom in Myanmar, saying that at least 32 journalists have been jailed since the coup in February and at least 45 as of July 1, before the military government released about 2,000 of those arrested in late June. The CPJ report said that at least 24 of the journalists were imprisoned because of Article 505(a) of the military's new post-coup Penal Code, which is used locally to combat “false news”.

CPJ's Southeast Asia representative and veteran journalist Shawn Crispin, who authored the report, said at an online press conference that the Burmese military government is fighting the last vestiges of press freedom in Myanmar through arrests, Internet bans, and the withdrawal of news agency licenses, calling for international attention to the press freedom and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar.

Source: Stand News #Jul28

#Burma #Myanmar #BurmaCoup #MyanmarCoup #Burmesemilitary #CPJ #CommitteeToProtectJournalists #pressfreedom #pressfreedominBurma #pressfreedominMyanmar

https://bit.ly/3BMA41J