Myanmar’s top three generals – Senior Gen. Than Shwe, Vice Senior Gen. Maung Aye and Gen. Thura Shwe Mann met the visiting Vice Chief-of-Staff of China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA), Gen. Zhang Li, in Naypyidaw on October 29. Analysts noted that Gen. Zhang’s trip was a means of strengthening cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries.

China has been the major supplier of military hardware to Myanmar since 1988, having provided it with fighter jets, naval ships, tanks, military vehicles and ammunition. Reports noted that China has delivered nearly $2 billion worth of military equipment to Myanmar since the early 1990s. Xinhua reported that the Chinese defense ministry was willing to work with Myanmar to further expand bilateral cooperation, to further the defence needs of the two nations and to safeguard regional peace and stability1.

In other developments, reports noted that an outpost of the Karen rebel group - Karen National Union (KNU, 6th Brigade, 201st Battalion), at Khalelawse, was seized in a joint operation by a rival Karen faction, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and government troops on October 31. The outpost is situated opposite the village of Ohn Phyan, within one kilometer of the Ohn Phyan refugee camp and about 80 kilometers south of Mae Sot on the Thai-Myanmar border2.

• 1. “Burma, China Consolidating Military Relations,” Irrawaddy, October 30, 2008, at http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=14526
• 2. “Karen rebel outpost seized”, Mizzima, November 1, 2008, at http://mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/1224-karen-rebel-outpost-seized.html