China hopes Myanmar achieves rapid national reconciliation: Wang Yi

HONG KONG – China hopes Myanmar achieves national reconciliation quickly and continues its political transformation, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said on Dec 6.

Mr Wang, who met Myanmar’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Than Swe in Beijing, said both countries should strengthen law enforcement cooperation to eradicate telecommunications fraud, China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Myanmar’s military

has been locked in a surge of fighting

with three ethnic rebel groups in the biggest challenge to its grip on the South-east Asian nation since seizing power from an elected government in a 2021 coup.

Meanwhile, China has been cracking down on telecoms fraud syndicates in Myanmar that it says have swindled Chinese nationals of large sums of money.

“China hopes that Myanmar will achieve national reconciliation and continue its political transformation process under the constitutional framework as soon as possible,” Mr Wang said in the meeting.

He acknowledged that recent cooperation between the two countries in cracking down on telecoms fraud and rescuing those trapped in northern Myanmar had yielded results.

“Both sides should strengthen law enforcement and security cooperation and completely eradicate the cancer of online gambling and telecoms fraud,” he said.

Beijing said in November that the Myanmar authorities have

handed over 31,000 telecoms fraud suspects to China.

Chinese state media reported that more than 100,000 people engage in telecoms fraud each day in at least 1,000 scam centres in Myanmar. REUTERS