Chinese infrastructure investments, cybercrime and speculation about Beijing’s position complicate ceasefire negotiations between Myanmar’s military government and rebel groups, observers say.

Democrat Betty McCollum and Republican Bill Huizenga said the first-ever caucus on the coup-hit nation will ‘address issues impacting the Burmese people across the US’.

Myanmar’s ruling generals remain barred from key Asean meetings over their failure to implement a peace plan agreed with the bloc two months after a 2021 coup that unleashed chaos in the country.

But the military is likely to ‘fight ever more brutally, the closer it comes to defeat’, analysts say, even as ‘pace of liberation quickens’ in Myanmar.

‘Immediate ceasefire’ follows two days of talks between junta and rebel Three Brotherhood Alliance in Kunming, Chinese foreign ministry says.

Myanmar’s shadow government says it wants to work with China on issues ranging from investments to cross-border crime.

Chinese foreign vice-minister Sun Weidong meets Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing to discuss unrest and cross-border crime as armed ethnic groups declare they have taken control of Kokang region bordering China.

In summit with prime ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, China’s Li Qiang urges operations that ‘strike hard’ against cyber scams and other crimes.

Several Asean member states are believed to be upset with Thailand for organising direct talks with Myanmar.

Russia’s joint drills with Myanmar, warship port-calls in Bangladesh – and plans for a Red Sea base in Sudan – paint a picture of an embattled power out to prove it’s not isolated and weak, analysts say.

The anti-junta operation came amid rising anger in Beijing with the junta over rampant crime on the border, which created conditions that supported the blitzkrieg, analysts say.

Asean is unsuited to lead talks on Myanmar’s future following its past failure to stop the violence in the country, an observer says.

It will benefit India to have a ‘working relationship’ with the resistance groups as the security situation along the border continues to deteriorate, analysts say.

The junta is facing its gravest challenge from armed groups following their coordinated attacks in Shan State.

Myanmese authorities urged to take ‘effective measures’ to ensure stability in the region.

Students and teachers at Chinese school warned to shelter to avoid being hit by stray bullets.

Myanmar’s junta is attempting to shed its ‘outcast’ reputation by touting its ties with bigger, more powerful nations, even as the generals remain shut out of most Association of Southeast Asian Nations events.

Diplomats of the two countries gather for first time in years to discuss border stability and cross-border fraud as Beijing quietly steps up engagement with military rulers in its Southeast Asian neighbour.

Budget cuts forced the UN to steeply reduce aid to the camps this year – where malnutrition was already rampant – rations are now just US$8 a month per refugee.

The move comes as views against the junta start to harden, over its air wars, and as it steps up its campaign of terror against the population.

Myanmar’s ex-leader will be pardoned for five of the 19 offences for which she was jailed for a total of 33 years following the 2021 coup. Former president Win Myint was also pardoned.

Analysts say ‘national security’ comes first for India, as it needs Myanmar in the border security fight against insurgency, drugs and trafficking.

From Shwe Kokko to KK Park, a slew of brutal criminal enterprises now dot the Moei River at the Thai border, where unsuspecting victims from around the globe are trafficked, tortured and forced to defraud strangers online.

Thailand’s unilateral approach has undermined Asean’s centrality principle and the power of the bloc’s chair, Indonesia, to drive inclusive dialogue with Myanmar, observers note.

The move by Bangkok’s Prayuth-led administration may be its way of showing it has ‘continued legitimacy’ after the pro-democracy election result, an analyst says.