BURMA EXILES AND CHINESE OFFICIALS KEEP COMMUNICATION LINES

UNCLAS CHIANG MAI 000104 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL TH BM CH SUBJECT: BURMA EXILES AND CHINESE OFFICIALS KEEP COMMUNICATION LINES OPEN REF: (05) CHIANG MAI 195 ¶1. (SBU) Chinese officials maintain communication with Burma exiles based in northern Thailand representing the National League for Democracy - Liberated Area (NLD-LA) and the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB),soliciting their views on the situation inside Burma and offering advice. ¶2. (SBU) In a meeting with the Consul General June 7, NLD-LA and NCUB Foreign Affairs Committee member Nyo Ohn Myint reported having traveled to China 16 times since 2003 as well as talking with Chinese visitors in Thailand (reftel). His trips are usually to Kunming, with an occasional visit to Beijing. He described the officials he meets as primarily researchers, although one was from the Foreign Relations Office of the Prime Minister. He knows them by partial names with no more specific identification. ¶3. (SBU) During Nyo Myint's most recent trip to Kunming May 17-20, Chinese officials told him that China's policy "can't be changed" for at least the next three years and asked him to prepare a roundtable discussion later in the year in Singapore or Hong Kong on policy issues. They advised that the NLD needs to work more with the ethnic groups, at the same time commenting that the regime's intention to disarm the ethnics is beneficial for the NLD. They also accused the US of orchestrating the recent UN Security Council resolution on Burma knowing that China would veto it. ¶4. (SBU) According to Nyo Myint, the Chinese are concerned about Burma's aging leaders, the student movement, and their own survey research inside Burma that reportedly showed 87% of respondents expressing a need for change in the political system. Noting that Burmese delegations often go to China to study the system there, Nyo Myint's contacts believe that the Chinese model holds lessons for future political developments in Burma. Regime visitors have shown particular interest in the Yunnan experience with Muslims, Shans, Kachins and other minority rights issues. ¶5. (U) Nyo Myint brought with him to the Consulate elected MP and former prisoner Win Hlaing, described on the website of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) as "the latest MP in exile, who escaped from Rangoon to Thailand in February, 2007. He spent over 8 years in junta's notorious prison from October 1990 to January 1999." Win Hlaing recently returned from the May conference in Tokyo of the Japanese Parliamentary Group Supporting Democratization in Myanmar and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC). He will be part of NLD and NCUB international lobbying efforts, possibly with a later posting to the Burma Campaign UK office in London. ¶6. (SBU) In Chiang Mai, NLD-LA has met with the newly arrived Indian consul but has not yet succeeded in efforts to talk with new Chinese Consul General Wu Hui Qing, whose husband is Ambassador in Rangoon. Nyo Myint is pinning his hopes on making contact with her at the US Consulate Fourth of July reception. ¶7. (SBU) Nyo Myint reported similar efforts in Rangoon where 88 Generation Students leaders Min Ko Naing and Mya Aye went knocking on the Russian and Chinese embassy doors. Shut out by the Russians, the pair nevertheless talked with Burmese-speaking officers at the Chinese embassy who used Burmese names and accused them of being troublemakers. CAMP