People's Republic of China
The People's Republic of China had poor relations with Burma until the late 1980s. Between 1967 and 1970, Burma broke relations with Beijing because of the latter's support for the Communist Party of Burma (CPB). Deng Xiaoping visited Yangon in 1978 and withdrew support for the long running insurgency of the Communist Party of Burma. However, in the early 1950s Burma enjoyed a hot-and-cold relationship with China. Burma's U Thant and U Nu lobbied for China's entry as a permanent member into the Security Council, but denounced the invasion of Tibet.
China and Burma have had many border disputes, dating long before the British annexation of Burma. The last border dispute culminated in 1956, when the People's Liberation Army invaded northern Burma, but were repulsed. A border agreement was reached in 1960.
In the late 1960s, due to Ne Win's propaganda that the Chinese were responsible for crop failures, and the increasing number of ethnic Chinese students supporting Mao Zedong, by carrying the Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong books, anti-Chinese riots broke out in June 1967. At the same time, many Sino-Burmese were influenced by the Cultural Revolution in China and began to wear Mao badges. Shops and homes were ransacked and burned. The Chinese government heavily berated the Burmese government and started a war of words, but no other actions were taken. The anti-Chinese riots continued till the early 1970s.
However, after 1986, China withdrew support for the CPB and began supplying the military junta with the majority of its arms in exchange for increased access to Burmese markets and a rumoured naval base on Coco Islands in the Andaman Sea. China is supposed to have an intelligence gathering station on the Great Coco Island to monitor Indian naval activity as well as ISRO & DRDO missile and space launch activities. The influx of Chinese arms turned the tide in Burma against the ethnic insurgencies, many of which had relied indirectly on Chinese complicity. As a result the military junta of Burma is highly reliant on the Chinese for their currently high level of power.
Burma has an embassy in Beijing and consulates-general in Kunming and Hong Kong
Read more about this topic: Foreign Relations Of Burma
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