Since its militaryboard, lets talk something more
related.
3 observations:
1st , Burmese military government is moving its operations out of
Yangon to the new capitol closer to Chinese border.
2nd, In 2003, China changed its guard on the border with Myanmar in
Yunnan province, with PLA taking over the border defense
responsibilities from local armed police.
3rd there once was rumors that during 2003 Cobra Gold, US
paratroops had infiltrated northern Myanmar, since the news
surfaced, China has changed border defense from Armed Police to PLA
13th Army. 2 full divisions are now deployed there.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/EK22Ad02.html
HONG KONG - On September 16, 03, Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesman Kong Quan told a press conference that China had early
that month changed its guard on the border with Myanmar in Yunnan
province, with People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers taking over
the border defense responsibilities from local armed police. He
said the move was a normal adjustment and had been completed,
adding that many journalists had asked him about the issue the day
before.
In fact, Kong's statement came out of the blue - nobody was asking
any questions about the China-Myanmar border. The focus of the
press conference was China's military buildup on its North Korean
border. However, the Beijing government was evidently eager to let
the world know that it was massing its forces on the Myanmar border
as well, hence Kong's seemingly irrelevant statement.
For despite China's preference for a low profile, it likes to keep
the outside world posted on what's happening on its borders.
Intrigued by Kong's remarks, Asia Times Online sent a team to the
southern province of Yunnan, and into Myanmar itself, to
investigate the nature and scale of the border "adjustment", and to
try to determine why it is taking place. Had a US military force
been secretly deployed inside Myanmar, as one rumor had it? Or,
more likely, was Beijing worried that the embattled military
dictatorship in Yangon was losing control of the country all on its
own, without interference by Americans in the shadows?
ATol found that Kong did not tell the whole truth by describing the
deployment as a routine adjustment. The deployment is large, and
existing border patrols have not been replaced, but have been
reinforced by well-equipped units of the People's Liberation Army
(PLA).
A restaurant owner in a night market near the southern border
witnessed the "military adjustment" one night in early September.
He said the fleet of army trucks from Kunming, the capital of
Yunnan province, and other places could have numbered in the
hundreds, to say nothing of other vehicles. It took about 10
minutes for these trucks to pass by his door. They were heading
toward Yunnan's border with Myanmar within the province's
Xishuangbanna autonomous prefecture.
As with the situation on the Sino-North Korean border at the end of
September, the changes on the China-Myanmar border were clearly
reinforcements, not replacements. The existing border police were
not removed; in fact, to make things more complicated and
mysterious, some of them were transformed into a "mobility
brigade". For local residents, this is one of the signs of prewar
preparations.
The military buildup is most conspicuous in Jinghong, the capital
of Xishuangbanna autonomous prefecture. Originally, there was one
military branch zone and an armed-police branch stationed in the
prefecture. The former was north of Jinghong, while the latter was
on Jingdexi Road beside Jinghong Produce Market. Both of them were
of division level. Military units 7702 and 7701, both under the
branch zone of Xishuangbanna, have been stationed in Menghai and
Mengla counties as well as Jinghong for a long time.
At the same time, armed police of a regiment size have also been
quartered respectively in places mentioned above. In Daluo town of
Menghai, which is on the border, there is one checkpoint with 26
police officers. Though small in size, its head, surnamed Zhu, is
nonetheless a lieutenant-colonel, equivalent to a battalion
commander in the military. A large number of armed police have been
removed from the border because of the "adjustment", but some 100
police officers (equivalent to a company in size) are still kept in
this tiny town.
The armed police that were stationed in Menghai and Mengla
previously, one regiment in size each, seem to have been withdrawn.
Yet a new mobility brigade with more than 300 officers has been set
up along with existing forces: a squadron of armed police guarding
the prison and a border brigade.
According to informed sources, the evacuated armed police were not
sent far, but were redeployed in the deep forests closer to the
border for tighter defense, forming a garrison model of armed
police in the first frontline and PLA troops in the second.
On September 9, the newly arrived troops took over the barracks and
the battalion headquarters from border police. Villages that were
never garrisoned before were now for the first time fortified.
According to informed sources, the reinforcements were PLA 13th
Army field troops who were beyond the command of the Xishuangbanna
Autonomous Prefecture Military Branch Zone.
The 13th Army is nicknamed the Chuan Army (ie Army from Sichuan
province) in the locality, for it has apparently never been back to
Yunnan since 1968, when the province came under the Chengdu
Military Zone. Since that time, the field army stationed in Yunnan
has been the 14th Army. But now, the Chuan Army has broken the
convention and marched into the "taboo" region, a possible
indication of Beijing's desire to reinforce the border. The 13th
Army is ranked as a Level A field army, equipped with sophisticated
armored weaponry, while the 14th is an inferior Level B, largely
consisting of infantry.
The 13th Army has fielded troops in numerous towns and villages in
the area. Radar and missile forces have been deployed in a deep
valley near Mengzhi village, which has been demarcated as a
forbidden zone.
At the time of Asia Times Online's investigation in the area,
rumors were rife that US paratroops had infiltrated northern
Myanmar to establish an air force base there. ATol confirmed that
the rumor originated from the PLA barracks and soon spread among
the local residents. Informed sources in Washington and Bangkok
told ATol that the rumors were totally groundless. Some Bangkok
sources insisted that the Thai government would not tolerate any
such unilateral US action in neighboring Myanmar.
Other sources in Beijing told ATol that China's reinforcement is a
result of its fear that the military government in Yangon might
collapse because of domestic and international pressure. As Myanmar
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been put under house
arrest for the third time, opposition voices are mounting.
Internationally, the clamor against the junta has been mounting,
even within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which is
always reluctant to interfere in the internal affairs of a member
state.
Under these circumstances, even if the military government of
Myanmar can hold on to its rule, its ability to control the border
could deteriorate dramatically, leading to fighting among warlords
in the region. For that and other reasons, China has seen the need
to strengthen its own defense of the border.
