During the Sunday meeting  “Yang stressed that China supports the reconciliation process with Myanmar nationalities, hoping that the Myanmar government and the Kachin side could maintain the trend of peace talks and reach ceasefire agreement as early as possible. In this regard, China would continue to play a constructive role”. Yang is a senior Chinese diplomat and served as China's Foreign Minister until earlier this year.

China has played an active role in facilitating talks between the KIO and negotiators from Burma's central government since last year when the two sides began to meet regularly in the Chinese border town of Ruili. Chinese government representatives have also attended the last few rounds of talks as observers, including the most recent meeting in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina.

Beijing has also made clear that it does not want representatives of other nations to attend the talks, according to leaked reports from the peace talks. But this stance contradicts the KIO's desire to include US and European diplomats as observers.

Nyan Tun currently is one of two vice presidents in Burma. During the previous SPDC regime he served as Navy Commander-in-Chief and considered close to the retired strongman Sr. Gen. Than Shwe.