Filed at 1:15 p.m.
ET BEIJING (AP) — China has told Myanmar to put an end to fighting with an ethnic militia that has sent 10,000 people fleeing across their border, a strong response underscoring the communist country’s concerns about potential instability. People were continuing to cross from Myanmar’s Kokang region into China’s Yunnan province late Friday, according to eyewitnesses reached by phone. Sounds of artillery and gunfire across the border in Myanmar rang out throughout the day, they said. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said China hopes Myanmar can ”properly deal with its domestic issue to safeguard the regional stability in the China-Myanmar border area.” Myanmar must also ensure the safety and legal rights of Chinese citizens in that country, Jiang added in a statement posted on the ministry’s Web site. China maintains close ties with Myanmar’s ruling military junta and usually takes care not to entangle itself in the regime’s affairs. Beijing has consistently offered Myanmar diplomatic support based on its avowed policy of nonintervention, while China’s border trade and oil and gas deals have thrown an economic lifeline to the ruling generals. Pak K. Lee, an expert on Myanmar and China at Kent University, said Beijing was not changing its noninterventionist stance, but was genuinely concerned about the fighting’s effect on stability in Yunnan ahead of the highly sensitive Oct. 1 celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic.
”Absent the factor of the 60th anniversary, China might adopt a low-profile approach to the event. But now, it has to call on Myanmar to take prompt action to tackle the problem before it becomes unmanageable,” Lee said.