Tun Mon Thet (NSS) - Oct 2

“The American century is over; the Asian century is coming.” 

Professor Kishore Mahbubani in an interview with the Global Times

In 1991, the former Soviet Union collapsed and the United States declared “The Cold War had come to an end.” Without equal power rivals at that time, the United States commenced its unmannerly engagements in the global sociopolitical economy in aspects of military hegemony, economic hegemony, cultural hegemony and, last but foremost, information hegemony or the propaganda until late 2000s.   

The years 2010s challenged the unipolarity of the United States as China came back once again as a strong civilization that made the United States suddenly astonished and grabbed its attention back again to the east of the world while it was busy with outraging at the Middle East. Since then, the United States’ foreign policy toward China has been practicing the containment strategy once again. 

Why America is so aggressive to Myan­mar despite no direct threat to its national security and interest? 

The country located in Southeast Asia and at the edge of East Asia, with 54 million population and 676,578 km² in total land area sitting on the position of exiting to the Indian Ocean, Myanmar does not have the capacity to threaten directly to the national security and national interest of the United States. 

However, Myanmar geo-strategically exists next to the rising China. In this regard, the United States always views China as its long-term threat powerful enough to reshape the US-dominated international order.  

In 2022, the US Secretary of State Antoney Blinken announced a new containment policy to China to “create the strategic environment around Beijing”. That’s a year later Myanmar experienced the 2021 political transition. Again, it was one year ahead; in 2023, armed conflicts in Myanmar suddenly transformed into a harsh and bloodthirst civil war. 

Most importantly, in the United States’ intention to contain, destabilize, and weaken China, such arrogant globally No. 1 country has built reasonably strong enough military ties with most ASEAN countries that are encompassed on the coastal region of the Rimland; except with Tatmadaw, the Myanmar military.  

Myanmar Tatmadaw is the only Southeast Asian military possessing a geo-strategic position that the United States cannot and could not adopt as its client military wing within at least 70 years period. While other pro-American ASEAN nations like Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia accept to build military cooperations with the US with different and certain levels of commitments, Myanmar Tatmadaw remains neutral and non-alignment policy both in military and political spheres.  

Back in history, the United States backed the Kuomintang Chinese Nationalists in the Chinese Civil War in 1945-49. When Kuomintang invaded Myanmar in the 1950s, Tatmadaw did not allow it and fought back the US-backed Kuomintang invaders. Since that era, the United States tried to intervene in Myanmar in the military aspect.   

With regard to the US’ continuous assaults on Myanmar, Executive Director of Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies U Thein Tun Oo explained: “It’s very clear that Myanmar is the country with the best geography location to counter China. Just recall the history, the US was involved in the Kuomintang crisis. And it also intervened in the 88 uprising. It is very simple. The US will take a jump ahead and will try to clear the rising competitor no matter who it is.” 

Thus, he remarks: “Myanmar, the country with strategic and geopolitically assets for China, becomes the country that the United States will have to ignite crisis, conflicts, and instabilities at any cost in any situation.”  

In the second week of this September, the US Congress passed 25 bills that they claimed threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party in their ‘China Week’ prohibiting trade of Chinese drones, Chinese EVs, Chinese batteries, restriction on Confucius Institutes, Taiwan Strait issue, and countering the PRC Malign Influence Fund Authorization Act, etc.  

In China Week, the House also passed $1.6 billion to deliver anti-Chinese propaganda overseas. In point of fact, propaganda is the United States’ successful tool used in their missions and operations to regime change in their adversaries. 

Propaganda and disinformation created by the US and its allies, and the penetration of Anglo-Saxon media have been encroaching on Myanmar for many decades. Those media put information and portrayed anti-government sentiment in every era in different sectors like issues in politics, economics, environment, security and development. 

The U.S. Agency for Intern­ational Development (USAID), National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and their subordinate organizations are the major entities that import irrational views as a disguised democ racy, especia­lly to the ordinary and average population who usually are struggling for their normal life and relatively low in concep­tual thinking.  

Under such network propaganda, the military assaults that happened in the northern part of the country in 2023 and 2024 were circulated as being primarily played by China to deceive the public. In reality, those military offenses in the northern Shan State were launched by the racist and ethnocentric Kokang and Ta’ang minorities which are known as the MNDAAs and the TNLAs.  

State Administration Council’s (SAC) Information Team released statements on 25 September evening and disclosed the direct link between those aggressive ethnocentric armed forces and the Amercian-backed exile shadow government which is called ‘the NUG’ (for National Unity Government). 

The SAC statement prescribes: “MNDAA and TNLA terrorists make a military alliance with the NUG. The NUG receives $200 million from the United States annually. It is obvious that the United States is using at least $200 million to ensure the instability of Mya­nmar’s domestic affairs. It is not because there are American interests in Myanmar. It is just intending to punch their main rival, China. Myanmar is the immediate neighbour of China having the exit to the Indian Ocean and border trade routes. There are many Chinese business projects in Myanmar. Myanmar is subjected by the United States to control China.” 

The US Congress’ legislation of funding $1.6 billion for anti-China propaganda will subsidize media and civil society sources around the world primarily by the State Department and the USAID for the next five years.