AFP, Yangon

The Myanmar junta’s second-in-command arrived in China yesterday for an official visit, the junta’s information team said, as clashes with ethnic minority fighters raged in the north of the country despite a Beijing-brokered ceasefire.

Vice-senior General Soe Win arrived in Qingdao in Shandong province where he will attend a “Green Development Forum” hosted by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the junta’s information office said in a statement.

Ties between the junta and Beijing, a major ally and arms supplier, frayed last year over the junta’s failure to crack down on online scam compounds in Myanmar’s borderlands.

The compounds were staffed by citizens of China and other countries who were often trafficked and forced to work swindling their compatriots in an industry analysts say is worth billions.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has not visited China since the 2021 coup that plunged the country into turmoil.

The Southeast Asian nation has seen widespread fighting since the military coup ended democratic rule.

Soe Win’s visit comes following more than a week of fighting in northern Shan state between the military and an ethnic minority armed group that has shattered a ceasefire brokered by China in January.

Yesterday the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) told AFP its fighters were “surrounding” the town of Lashio, home to a regional military command.

Lashio sits on a major highway that runs from Myanmar’s second city of Mandalay to China’s Yunnan province.