Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese.
UPDATED April 22, 2025, 1:55 p.m. ET
China has sent a team to monitor a ceasefire it has brokered in northern Myanmar, the Chinese foreign ministry said Tuesday, as rebel forces vacated a strategic city that had been under their control since last summer.
Myanmar junta forces re-entered the northern city of Lashio near the Chinese border on Tuesday. The city was abandoned by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, under the terms of the ceasefire brokered by China in the southern Chinese city of Kunming in January.
“China has recently sent a ceasefire monitoring group to Lashio to oversee the ceasefire between Tatmadaw and the MNDAA and witnessed the smooth handover of the urban areas of Lashio,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a regular news conference in Beijing on Tuesday. Tatmadaw is a Burmese name for the Myanmar military.
The MNDAA is one of many insurgent groups fighting the junta that seized power in a 2021 coup against a democratically elected government. It controls parts of northern Shan state and until recently, the Lashio. Frequent conflict and airstrikes have forced much of the population to flee the city and have reduced some wards to looted rubble.
Guo said that the peace process will continue, and China will try to push the talks forward “to ensure peace and stability along the China-Myanmar border together with the parties in Myanmar.”
One resident of Lashio told RFA that junta soldiers re-entered the city early on Tuesday morning, after the MNDAA removed personnel, offices and equipment from the city on Friday.
“From near city hall to the city entrance, it was full of cars, at least 50. Some soldiers got down from the cars wearing military uniforms and black masks, then I saw they had machine guns mounted on the car,” he said, identifying the group as Divisions 33, 99 and 77.
“I think they’re waiting for troops to be fully equipped before they re-deploy.”
Other residents said they were concerned about the large numbers of soldiers entering the city.
MNDAA and junta representatives met with China’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ representative for Asia Deng Xijun at Two Elephants Hotel in Lashio to discuss the handover, residents said.
The junta has not released any information about the transition.
The MNDAA captured Lashio in August 2024 as part of Operation 1027, a joint mission with two other insurgent armies to capture land from the Myanmar military.
China is the most influential foreign actor in Myanmar. It is one of the few governments that has retained ties with the Myanmar junta since the coup, but it also has long-standing ties with rebel groups near its southern border.
RFA’s attempts to contact the junta, MNDAA and Chinese Embassy of Myanmar went unanswered.
Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.
Updated with China’s foreign ministry confirming it has ceasefire monitors in Lashio.