bangkok — A recent attack on a Chinese consulate in Myanmar reflects growing anti-Chinese sentiment in the country fed by Beijing’s support of the ruling junta, experts say. 

On October 18, the Chinese consulate in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, was struck by a small explosive device. Reports say the building was damaged but there were no casualties. 

It was the first attack was on a Chinese diplomatic facility in Myanmar since anti-China riots in Yangon in 1967. 

In a statement to journalists, the nation’s military authorities said the blast damaged tiles on the roof of the two-story building and that they were seeking to identify and arrest the “terrorists” who were responsible.  

Two weeks later, no one has been caught and no group has claimed responsibility, but anti-China sentiment exists, experts say. 

Ye Myo Hein, a visiting senior expert at the United States Institute of Peace and global fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, said strong anti-China sentiment has been brewing since Myanmar’s military seized power on February 1, 2021. 

“Immediately following the coup, the public perceived China as supportive of the junta, resulting in strong anti-Chinese sentiment among the general population,” he told VOA. 

Anti-Chinese sentiment grows 

Myanmar has been in chaos since General Min Aung Hlaing and his military forces overthrew the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Backers of the ousted government have joined forces with various ethnic armies to resist the junta’s rule. 

China distanced itself from the junta for a time, but recently renewed its support. When it did, Ye Myo Hein said, anti-Chinese sentiment began to rise again.  

“It is difficult to determine who was responsible for the attacks on the Chinese consulate, but if China continues its pro-junta stance, it will likely face growing public animosity,” he said. 

The military has been sanctioned and condemned by the U.S. and Western countries, but it has retained some support from countries such as China and Russia.   

“Whoever was behind the consulate bombing, it suggests that there are multiple strands of anti-Chinese anger, against the support for the regime and against the perceived support of China for the Kokang occupation of Lashio,” David Scott Mathieson, an independent analyst with more than two decades of experience focusing on Myanmar, told VOA.   

Kokang, which is in northern Myanmar’s Shan State, sits on the border with China. It is home to 90% ethnic Chinese and is an important trade route between the two countries. 

In the past year, three allied pro-democracy ethnic groups have captured the city from Myanmar military forces. Beijing negotiated a cease-fire between the allied brotherhood and the junta in January but it was short-lived. 

China did succeed in getting the ethnic groups to assist in a crackdown on Chinese crime rings in northern Shan state that had been targeting Chinese citizens with online scams. 

China now appears to be backing both sides of the conflict. But with rebel forces capturing more territory over the past year, Beijing is showing its concern over the rapid deterioration of the junta’s position. 

In late July, after ethnic groups captured Lashio, a town in the northeast, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Myanmar’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyitaw. 

China also recently closed its borderlands and key trade routes under the control of Myanmar’s rebel groups, Reuters reported. 

One Chinese national who lives in Myanmar told VOA’s Mandarin Service that he believes the consulate attack was not a terrorist incident, but an expression of dissatisfaction with China.  

He added that since the coup, there have been protests against China’s government in various parts of Myanmar. In March 2021, several Chinese factories in Myanmar were burned and destroyed during mass protests against the coup. 

“China has to take this rising public anger very seriously, as it could potentially descend into violence in urban areas and against Chinese nationals and economic assets, but also Myanmar-Chinese communities as well,” Mathieson told VOA this week. 

“Has Beijing really thought through all these dilemmas? Or is its cynically arrogant support for the SAC at such levels the Chinese leadership don’t care about consequences?”  

The SAC is short for the State Administration Council, a reference to the junta. 

History of supporting military

Over the last three decades, Beijing has supplied the Myanmar military with major arms. The military has used those arms to crush those opposing their rule, with nearly 6,000 people killed, according to rights groups.   

China is also Myanmar’s biggest trade partner and has invested billions into the country’s oil and gas sector.  

“Since the junta is widely despised, Beijing’s support for it will almost certainly fuel anti-Chinese sentiment,” Ye Myo Hein said. 

Nevertheless, diplomacy is continuing between the two regimes, as Myanmar junta boss Min Aung Hlaing is expected to pay a return visit to China in November. 

VOA reporter Katherine Michaelson contributed to this report.   
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Papua New Guinea on Thursday declared a boycott of next month’s UN climate summit, branding the global warming negotiations a “waste of time” full of empty promises from big polluters.

While plenty have criticized the annual COP summit in the past, it is rare for any government to so totally dismiss the UN’s premier climate talks.

“There’s no point going if we are falling asleep because of jet lag because we’re not getting anything done,” Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko told AFP ahead of November’s COP29 summit in Azerbaijan.

“All the big polluters of the world promise and commit millions to assist in climate relief and support. And I can tell you now it’s all going to consultants.”

The island of New Guinea is home to the third-largest expanse of rainforest on the planet, according to the World Wildlife Fund, and has long been celebrated as one of the “lungs of the earth.”

Impoverished, flanked by ocean, and already prone to natural disasters, Papua New Guinea is also considered to be highly vulnerable to the unfolding perils of climate change.

“COP is a total waste of time,” Tkatchenko said.

“We are sick of the rhetoric as well as the merry-go-round of getting absolutely nothing done over the last three years.”

“We are the third-biggest rainforest nation in the world. We are sucking up the pollutants of these major countries. And they are getting away with it scot-free.”

‘Talk fest’

The COP summit in 2015 hammered out the landmark Paris Agreement, under which almost every country in the world has agreed to slash emissions to limit soaring global temperatures.

But subsequent gatherings have been dogged by growing criticism, stoked by a perception that big polluters are using their sway to limit further climate action.

Meanwhile, adaptation funds set up through COP to help developing nations have been accused of sluggish bureaucracy that fails to grasp the urgency of the crisis.

Civil society groups banded together last year to urge a boycott of the COP summit hosted by the United Arab Emirates, claiming the meeting would “greenwash” the petrostate’s poor climate credentials.

Underwhelmed by proposed emissions cuts, dozens of African nations led a temporary walkout of developing nations during the 2009 COP talks in Copenhagen.

And Ukraine has pressed its allies to avoid this year’s summit if Russian leader Vladimir Putin shows face.

But Papua New Guinea is among the first nations to have voiced such a full-throated call to boycott the COP summit altogether.

“Why are we spending all this money going to the other side of the world going to these talkfests,” said Tkatchenko.

‘No traction’

Papua New Guinea is one of five Pacific nations involved in a pivotal International Court of Justice case that will soon test whether polluters can be sued for neglecting their climate obligations.

Low-lying Pacific nations such as Tuvalu could be almost entirely swallowed by rising oceans within the next 30 years.

Tkatchenko said the decision to pull out of COP talks had been applauded by others within the Pacific bloc.

“I’m speaking up on behalf of the smaller island states that are worse off than Papua New Guinea. They were getting no traction and acknowledgement at all.”

Papua New Guinea would instead seek to strike its own climate deals through bilateral channels, said Tkatchenko, flagging that negotiations were already under way with Singapore.

“With like-minded countries like Singapore, we can do 100 times more than COP.

“They have a big carbon footprint, and we would like to think about how they can work with Papua New Guinea to fix that up.”

A key meeting ahead of COP29 ended in frustration earlier this month, with countries making little progress on how to fund a new finance deal for poorer nations.

COP — or conference of parties — is the top United Nations climate change conference, an annual summit in which nations look to determine legally binding climate commitments.
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Vienna — Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico begins a six-day visit to China Thursday that includes a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and stops in the central city of Hefei and Shanghai to attend the opening ceremony for this year’s China International Import Expo. 

Analysts say China is hoping to use the visit to strengthen ties with Slovak’s prime minister who is an ally of Viktor Orban and, like Hungary’s leader, has been critical of Russian sanctions and the EU’s support of Ukraine. 

Since coming to power, Fico has been interested in a more pro-China foreign policy. His trip to China, which was scheduled for June, was aborted due to an assassination attempt in May and has not been possible until now.

Fico is the longest-serving prime minister since the founding of the Republic of Slovakia in 1993.

Since first taking office in 2006, Fico has stepped down twice between 2010 and 2012 and between 2018 and 2023. In 2018, he resigned and gave way to his political ally, Peter Pellegrini, because of a political crisis sparked by the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak.

After Pellegrini’s defeat in the 2020 parliamentary elections, the Ordinary People and the Independent Personalities Party formed a new coalition government. During this period, Slovakia pushed for a more pro-Taiwan and values-oriented diplomatic line, which drew resentment in Beijing.

In the 2023 parliamentary elections, Fico won again and returned to power.

The Fico government advocates an “all-azimuth” foreign policy, including strengthening cooperation with Russia and China. In addition to this year’s trip to China, Fico plans to visit Russia next year to attend the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Matej Šimalčík, executive director of the Central European Institute of Asian Studies, told VOA the so-called “all-azimuth” foreign policy is a euphemism that means “to engage in economic relations with any country, without taking any considerations for political values, human rights, or security considerations.” 

Šimalčík said, “Fico’s government has also markedly toned down the scope of interactions with Taiwan, with some of his close political allies being outright proponents of PRC’s [China’s] interpretation of the ‘One-China Principle,” which holds that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China.

Filip Šebok, head of the Prague office at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies, said, “Fico has many times declared he does not want ‘Brussels’ to dictate Slovakia on these issues, and for him, it is a way to boost his credentials in leading a ‘sovereign’ Slovak foreign policy, despite criticism.

“Actually, domestically, it is good for Fico to claim he is doing something that is opposite to what is the Western mainstream, as he can maintain the support of his electorate. It is also a way to differentiate from the previous government, which was hawkish on Russia, and on China to some extent as well.”

Analysts say that Fico’s visit to China also serves an economic purpose.

Pavel Havlíček, a research fellow at the Association for International Affairs, said Fico is seeking partnerships and investments from countries outside of Europe.

“Among them, Russia and China are playing a special place, as was repeatedly mentioned when — for example — referring to the plan of the Slovak government to restore economic relations with Russia after the war.

“In the case of the PRC, the Slovak government is seeing investments and enhanced relations, too, to compensate for the lack of economic growth.”

Šebok said the Slovak government has pledged to focus more on supporting economic engagement, such as boosting Slovak exporters or attracting investments in Slovakia.

“The government has, for example, increased the number of economic diplomats around the world and also opened new embassies in Asia or Africa explaining them mostly as a way to boost economic diplomacy,” Šebok said.

“In this perspective, China is presented as a major economic partner, and Fico will be leading a relatively large business delegation to China. Fico specifically wants to engage China in PPP [public private partnership] projects for the reconstruction/construction of transport infrastructure around the country.”

Fico plans to work with China to promote large-scale infrastructure projects in Slovakia, including the reconstruction of roads and bridges, the expansion of the railway between the capital Bratislava and the city of Komárno, the completion of the Bratislava highway bypass and the construction of a hydroelectric power plant.

In the recent vote on European tariffs on electric vehicles from China, the Fico government voted against it.

“Slovakia, through the Volkswagen plant, has exported a large number of cars to China,” Šebok said. “It is particularly exposed to Chinese retaliation to EU tariffs on Chinese EV imports, as China directly hinted that it might target large engine vehicles from the EU, which are exported from Germany and Slovakia.

“What is paradoxical is that tariffs on Chinese EVs can actually be also indirectly good for Slovakia, as they can push more Chinese EV producers to set up manufacturing in Europe as a way to avoid tariffs,” he added.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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