{"id":2568,"date":"2025-09-05T07:19:45","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T07:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/?p=2568"},"modified":"2025-09-05T07:19:46","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T07:19:46","slug":"chinas-century-old-hunger-for-myanmars-borderlands-from-kengtung-to-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/2025\/09\/05\/chinas-century-old-hunger-for-myanmars-borderlands-from-kengtung-to-today\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Century-Old Hunger for Myanmar\u2019s Borderlands: From Kengtung to Today"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

China\u2019s Old Designs on Myanmar<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For more than 130 years<\/strong>, China has tried to redraw Myanmar\u2019s map. As far back as the Kengtung Incident of 1890<\/strong> and the London Agreements of 1891\u20131894<\/strong>, Beijing pressed for vast swathes of our land: east of the Shweli, east of the Salween, the Kokang, Wa, Mong La regions, and even the whole of Eastern Shan State between the Salween and Mekong rivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These were not small claims. China wanted nothing less than half of Shan hills\u2014territories that had for centuries looked westward to Mandalay, not eastward to Yunnan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Britain Blocked the Grab<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

At first, some in London thought about conceding Kengtung to China. It was mountainous, poor in revenue, and far from Rangoon. But key colonial officials like Chief Commissioner Crosthwaite<\/strong> and Shan administrator J.G. Scott<\/strong> pushed back. They argued that Kengtung had long paid tribute to the Burmese kings and was crucial for Britain\u2019s prestige.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1891, Scott marched into Kengtung with a small escort, met the Sawbwa face-to-face, and signed a treaty of protection. This one act ensured Kengtung remained inside Burma. If not, today\u2019s map of Myanmar might be very different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The London talks (1891\u20131894)<\/strong> dragged on for three years. China\u2019s envoys\u2014including Ambassador Tseng and adviser Sir Halliday Macartney\u2014insisted on grabbing land east of the Salween and Mekong. Britain\u2019s answer was clear: China had not exercised real control there for a century, no Chinese lived or traded in the Mekong valley, and the Kachin duwas traded only with Burmese towns like Bhamo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frustrated, China even proposed turning the entire Kachin Hills into a \u201cbuffer land.\u201d The British refused. In the end, the border was fixed along the mountain ridges, not the rivers. The 1891\u20131894 London Agreement<\/strong> locked in Myanmar\u2019s eastern frontier much as we know it today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China\u2019s Old Greed, Today\u2019s Reality<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Why did China want these lands then? The answer is obvious when we look at what China is doing right now<\/strong> in those same regions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n