Senior Chinese officials have held talks with Myanmar, the government said Saturday, as Beijing grows increasingly concerned about border security and telecoms scams with rebel groups pressing their campaign against Myanmar's junta.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong visited Myanmar from Thursday to Saturday, meeting junta leader Min Aung Hlaing to discuss topics that included border stability and the crackdown on the telecom scams, China's foreign ministry said.
China's minister of public security, Wang Xiaohong, had a video call with Myanmar's home affairs minister, Lieutenant-General Yar Pyae, on Friday, Wang's ministry spokesperson said.
China, a key junta ally that also has close relations with some ethnic Chinese militias along their shared frontier, has grown increasingly frustrated in recent months with the Myanmar junta and its lack of action on closing the scam centers that target Chinese citizens.
A Myanmar rebel alliance has gained control of a key town along the country's volatile northern border with China after weeks of fierce fighting with junta troops, the alliance and the junta said.
The "Three Brotherhood Alliance," as the group is known, said it took over Laukkai town after the military's regional headquarters located there surrendered.
The fall of Laukkai is the latest victory in a sweeping offensive by an alliance of rebel groups that began in October and has become the most significant threat to Myanmar's military government since it seized power in a 2021 coup.
"All Kokang [Laukkai] region has become a land with no Myanmar Military Council anymore," according to a statement from the alliance.
A junta spokesman did not respond to calls from Reuters seeking comment.
Beijing, which has facilitated dialogue between the two sides, has called for a cease-fire in the continuing violence.
