SAC-M’s Connor Macdonald speaks to DVB

Special Advisory Council for Myanmar on China’s ceasefire

7 May 2025

The Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M) spoke to DVB about China’s intervention in northern Shan State and its pressure on the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) to hand back Lashio Township to the regime. It claimed in a statement on Monday that this was a betrayal of those who died fighting to seize the town, and its Northeastern Regional Military Command (RMC), from regime control.

“China has adopted a policy of open interference in Myanmar,” Connor Macdonald, the SAC-M advocacy and communications coordinator, told DVB. He added that the Beijing-brokered ceasefire raises concerns over how other resistance groups, including the Brotherhood Alliance’s Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Arakan Army (AA), may succumb to the pressure of signing a peace agreement with Naypyidaw.

Sources told DVB that China’s Special Envoy Deng Xijun was in Lashio last month to oversee the handover from the MNDAA to the regime, which was completed on April 22 as part of the ceasefire agreement reached between the two parties on Jan. 18. Lashio is located 107 miles (172 km) south of the Burma-China border town of Muse and 243 miles (391 km) north of the Shan State capital Taunggyi.