China-ASEAN summit begins without a Myanmar representative

China is meeting with leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for a yearly summit amid reports that member states rebuffed Beijing’s request to include Myanmar’s top general.

This is the second time in a month that ASEAN has excluded Myanmar’s Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing from a regional summit.

The general overthrew the elected government of the National League for Democracy (NLD) on February 1 and oversaw a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters that have plunged Myanmar into civil war.

The 10-member ASEAN spearheaded diplomatic efforts to end the crisis, agreeing with Min Aung Hlaing in April to a deal that included talks with the deposed and detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But the military failed to follow through on the agreement, and ASEAN retaliated by barring Min Aung Hlaing from its summits.

The decision is unprecedented for a group of countries that emphasize non-interference in domestic affairs and have their own shoddy track records on democracy.

Although Beijing appears to have accepted the decision, the fact that it pushed for the general’s inclusion at all has stirred the geopolitical pot in the region.

Josh Kurlantzick, a Southeast Asia fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said he did not take China’s lobbying for Min Aung Hlaing’s inclusion at Monday’s summit as a sign that Beijing is warming to military rule in Myanmar.

He described the military’s power grab in Myanmar as a “disaster for Beijing for the most part”.

“I do think China is very unhappy with the situation in Myanmar and wants to work with ASEAN to try to restore Myanmar to something close, eventually, to the pre-coup status, which was much much better for China,” he said.

The coup and subsequent internal conflict have caused instability which has threatened Chinese business interests, sparked a surge of COVID-19 cases, and reignited old civil wars in border regions.

Aaron Connelly, Southeast Asia research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the fact that China acquiesced to ASEAN’s refusal to allow Min Aung Hlaing is telling.

“If the junta’s international legitimacy were a priority for Beijing, I don’t think we’d see them accept this decision quite so easily,” he said.

Connelly noted that China has also accepted a deal to allow Kyaw Moe Tun to continue as Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations, despite pledging his loyalty to the overthrown government and being charged by the military with treason.

“The chill between Min Aung Hlaing and Chinese leaders runs deep, and that has not changed as quickly as some expected – despite the two otherwise adopting a transactional approach to diplomacy,” he added.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES