During an unusual exercise on the Burma border, Chinese police are practicing using riot shields, while its ally, the Burmese government, is engaged in a large-scale offensive against the Kachin Independence Army, according to eyewitnesses.
In the afternoon of Oct. 24, the exercise took place in front of the border gate at Laiza, the headquarters of the KIA in Kachin State, said eyewitnesses.
Riot policemen put on a full-scale demonstration of how to disperse crowds and arrest people, added witnesses.
Critics in Laiza said the exercise at the Laiza border gate was to pressure the KIO, who is resisting the offensive by Burmese government troops.
KIO strongholds, including Maijayang, Laiza and Laisin Bum are based near the China border, in eastern Kachin State.
Chinese troops exercise every afternoon in the Chinese border town of Jang Hkawng, opposite the KIO stronghold at Maijayang, said eyewitnesses.
Over 6,000 Chinese troops have arrived at military bases along the Burma border in its southwestern Yunnan province since early this month, according to sources close to Chinese border authorities.
Bum Htoi, a former officer of the Burmese Communist Party on the border said the Chinese and Burmese governments are now implementing a joint strategy to remove the KIO from the two countries’ border.
The mission has failed so far because the Burmese Army cannot fight against the KIA according to its original plan, he added.
China has blocked Kachin refugees from crossing into its territory since the beginning of the civil war against the KIA on June 9.
