The Irrawaddy’s coverage of SAC-M’s 16 July report Factory of Death.
By Myo Pyae
18 July 2025
A Chinese state-owned company is helping the Myanmar military regime to manufacture bombs used in deadly airstrikes against resistance forces and civilians across the country, according to a new report by the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M).
Titled “Factory of Death: China’s Support for the Myanmar Military’s Production of Aerial Bombs”, the report details how China South Industries Group Corporation, a Chinese state-owned arms company, and its subsidiaries Hunan Vanguard and Chongqing Changan have supported the production of aerial bombs at Myanmar’s Defence Industries 21 (DI-21) factory.
DI-21 is one of 25 factories where the military regime’s arms production takes place. The facilities are located in Myanmar’s central lowlands, mainly in Magwe and Bago regions.
Located in Seikphyu Township, Magwe Region, DI-21 is run by the military junta’s Office of the Chief of Defense Industries (OCDI) and manufactures the majority of the junta’s aerial bombs, including 250-kg and 500-kg bombs, fuel air-explosive (FAE) bombs and domestically designed cluster munitions.
Between 2014 and 2019, China South and its subsidiaries sent engineers to work at DI-21, providing on-site technical assistance, according to the report. From 2015 to 2019, they also trained DI-21 personnel in China, and they have continued to offer remote technical support and supply key components since 2019, it said.
SAC-M—a group of former UN experts on Myanmar—also stated that DI-21 staff are currently pursuing advanced studies at Chinese universities conducting defense-related research directly applicable to bomb production.
“By providing aerial bombs and technical production assistance to OCDI, China South is complicit in the junta’s grave violations against civilians,” Yanghee Lee of SAC-M is quoted as saying in the report.
“China must immediately end all support for Myanmar military arms manufacturing,” she added.
Even before the 2021 coup, Myanmar’s military deployed FAE and thermobaric bombs in multiple operations—including operations in Kokang in 2015, an attack on the Kachin Independence Army (KIA)’s 12th Battalion in Kachin State in 2017, and battles against the Arakan Army in Chin State in 2020.
Facing mounting losses to resistance forces since the 2021 coup, the Myanmar military junta has increasingly conducted aerial bombings on civilian targets, and has not spared schools, hospitals, religious buildings or IDP camps.
On April 11, 2023, the junta bombed a gathering in Pazigyi, Kantbalu Township, Sagaing Region, resulting in at least 155 deaths.
Human Rights Watch on May 9, 2023 concluded that the weapon used was an “enhanced blast type munition” or a “thermobaric weapon”. Military spokesperson Zaw Min Tun confirmed that the attack had targeted People’s Defense Force (PDF) members and that the casualties were a result of the strikes.
A few months later, the Mung Lai Hkyet internally displaced persons camp was bombed using similar weapons on Oct. 11, 2023, killing 29 civilians.
In January 2025, during a KIA attack on the junta’s 21st Military Operations Command in Bhamo Township, Kachin State, the military used thermobaric bombs against KIA forces, according to the SAC-M report.
According to the civilian National Unity Government’s Ministry of Human Rights, the regime has conducted more than 3,000 airstrikes, killing at least 3,242 people, including 478 children, between 2023 and June 2025.
The SAC-M urged the United Nations to adopt a new resolution on Myanmar imposing a comprehensive Security Council arms embargo that would prohibit military technical assistance or other forms of support to the Myanmar military.
It called on other states to end all transfers, including of micro-electronics, to the Myanmar military and to prosecute any company providing support to the junta or its arms production units, including those named in the report, for aiding and abetting the commission of potential war crimes by the Myanmar military.
“If China wants to play a constructive role in Myanmar’s future, it must use its influence to stop Min Aung Hlaing from dropping even one more bomb. Disrupting aerial bomb production at DI-21 is critical to saving civilian lives. China must also immediately cut off all transfers of weapons, munitions, technology and production assistance to the junta,” Chris Sidoti of SAC-M said.