Chinese firm helps supply Myanmar junta with bombs – report

As Myanmar's military government becomes increasingly dependent on Beijing, a new report claims that a Chinese state-owned company is helping the junta produce bombs used against both rebels and civilians.

Bombs produced with Chinese assistance are “widely used by the Myanmar air force for indiscriminate attacks against civilians,” according to a new report from the Special Advisory Council on Myanmar (SAC-M), an independent group established by three UN officials and made up of international experts.

The report, “Factory of Death: China’s Support for Myanmar’s Military’s Production of Aerial Bombs,” focuses on the links between the State-owned South China Industrial Corporation, also known as South China, and the DI 21 arms factory in Magway, central Myanmar. The researchers used publicly available information, witness statements, official documents, expert assessments and other sources of information to compile the document.

According to SAC-M, China Southern and its subsidiary Hunan Vanguard were “instrumental in creating most of the factory’s current production lines.”

This includes sending Chinese engineers across the border, training DI 21 personnel in China, and supplying key components for the bombs. According to the report, the Chinese company continues to provide remote technical assistance to the Myanmar manufacturing plant.

The junta's defense industry is "completely dependent on foreign supplies of materials - including microelectronics - for many of the components used in bombs manufactured in DI 21," the report said.

South China "collaborating" in attacks on civilians

Yanghee Lee, a former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar and one of the founders of SAC-M, said China should end its military support for the junta in Myanmar.

“South China is a state-owned enterprise – it is subordinate to the Chinese government. By providing aerial bombs and technical assistance for production [to Myanmar’s defense industry], South China is complicit in the junta’s serious violations against civilians. China should immediately cease all support for Myanmar’s military weapons production.”

Marzuki Darusman, a former attorney general of Indonesia and another co-founder of SAC-M, said the memories of the bombs will remain with the people of Myanmar long after the civil war is over. “When the people of Myanmar look to China, they hope to see a force for true peace and stability. Instead, they see the sponsor of their suffering. The bombs that are destroying their communities were produced with Chinese assistance in DI 21,” Darusman said in a press release. “Is this the legacy that China wants to leave in Myanmar?”

Junta bombings on an “unprecedented scale”

The junta has lost control of large parts of Myanmar's territory in the years following the 2021 military coup. As a result, the military leadership has relied on airstrikes to combat what it describes as terrorist groups.

But many have questioned this narrative, especially after the infamous bombing of the village of Pa Zi Gyi in Sagaing region in 2023, which, according to the UN, killed 155 people, including many children. The bombings have continued since then, with an airstrike on a Buddhist monastery in Sagaing last week killing 23 people.

“Countrywide data confirms the use of fighter jets, helicopters and UAVs to bomb locations across Myanmar at an unprecedented rate,” SAC-M said in the report released Wednesday. “Local researchers estimate that the military conducted 750 airstrikes in 11 regions of Myanmar in the last four months of 2023 alone, with an average of six airstrikes per day across the country.”

China uses UN veto to protect Myanmar junta

Khin Ohmar, a peace and security advocate in Myanmar, says the SAC-M report is further evidence of China's interference in Myanmar's internal affairs.

"China's arms industry enables the junta to carry out thousands of airstrikes that massacre civilians, including internally displaced persons, the elderly, children and women," she told DW.

"In the UN Security Council, China is using its veto power to prevent a global arms embargo and protect the war criminal junta, allowing weapons to continue to circulate. This is China's interference in our country's affairs, resulting in serious violations of international human rights and criminal law, and it must be held accountable under the law," she added.

New technologies for Min Aung Hlaing's regime

Beijing has supplied Myanmar's military with weapons for decades, while investing billions in the country's vital oil and gas sector. After years of civil war, China is also one of the junta's few remaining international allies.

While the EU, US, UK and Canada have all imposed sanctions on the military regime, Chinese support seems only to be growing – especially since the devastating earthquake in Myanmar in March. After travelling to China in November 2024, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Moscow two months ago.

"Xi Jinping's frequent meetings and interactions with Min Aung Hlaing since the Myanmar earthquake send a strong signal that China supports his regime at the highest levels," Jason Towers, former Myanmar director at the United States Institute of Peace, told DW.

"Decision-makers in (the border province of) Yunnan and powerful Chinese state-owned enterprises have moved closer to the junta since the earthquake, seeking new economic deals while supplying the regime with new technologies that strengthen its position on the battlefield," he added.

DW has contacted both the Chinese embassy in Myanmar and the State Council of China for comment, but has not received a response by the time of publication.

https://www.dw.com/en/chinese-firm-helps-supply-myanmar-junta-with-bombs-report/a-73310094