Study on China-Myanmar relations after the Myanmar’s democratic transformation

Abstract

Myanmar has a special geographical location, connecting East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia. It is located at the intersection of China, India and ASEAN,facing the Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) in the west and the South China Sea (Pacific Ocean) in the east, which has significant geostrategic significance. For China,Myanmar is an vital part of its neighborhood diplomacy and an essential country along the Belt and Road Initiative. Therefore, in the context of Myanmar's"democratic" reform, it is of great significance to analyze Myanmar's policy towards China and the test of changes and unchanging relations between China and Myanmar.

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations, China-Myanmar relations have enjoyed friendly development and bilateral cooperation and exchanges have been heating up. After the new military government came into power in 1988, China and Myanmar established relatively stable and close diplomatic relations, and both sides achieved further development in the political, economic, military, cultural and other fields. In 2011, the Thein Sein government came to power, and Myanmar realized the last step of the seven-step roadmap to democracy, opening the door of democratic political transformation. However, since Myanmar's democratic reform in 2011, great changes have taken place in its domestic politics and economy, which has affected theoriginally friendly relations between China and Myanmar and led to a series of disputes. Myanmar's international policy presents a totally different feature from the past, the most notable one is that Myanmar has made great progress in its relations with Western countries, while the relations between China and Myanmar have been loosened. In 2021, another military coup broke out in Myanmar, which severely damaged Myanmar's democratic reform. Myanmar's internal stability will have a direct impact on the security of China's border areas and the smooth progress of the Belt and Road Initiative. It is of great significance to review the development course of China-Myanmar relations after Myanmar accelerated the process of democratic transformation, analyze the factors affecting the development of China-Myanmar relations, and sum up the rules and experience of the development of China-Myanmar relations to understand the nature and future development prospects of bilateral relations and think about how to better cope with the political changes in Myanmar in the current period.