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Ethnic Kachin rebels have seized control of a key military base in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state near a Chinese rare-earth mine and other Chinese-led projects, according to residents and a rebel official.
Rebel control of these mines could potentially disrupt shipments of these lucrative rare earths, which are used in cell phones, cars and other products.
It would also give the Kachin Independence Army, or KIA, more leverage in dealing with China, which has seemed to favor the military junta in power, including possible future peace talks that might be brokered by China.
China is keen to see an end to the turmoil following the military’s 2021 coup d’etat in Myanmar that threatens its economic interests, which include oil and natural gas pipelines from the Indian Ocean coast.
In recent weeks, Beijing has pressed insurgent forces along the countries’ shared border to agree to halt their offensives against the junta, although neither side appears ready to lay down their arms.
On Monday, the KIA took control of the military’s No. 105 Infantry Battalion base near Chipwi township – a major hub for rare-earth mines in Myanmar – in addition to five other junta outposts in Chipwi and neighboring Tsawlaw township the rebel group had seized earlier.
A resident of Chipwi told RFA Burmese that the KIA had effectively assumed control of the township, which is home to more than 20,000 people and located around 65 km (40 miles) from the Chinese border.
“It is confirmed that the KIA has taken over the [township] police station and the junta’s combined forces in [nearby] Lay Maing village,” said the resident who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
“Chipwi is an administrative town with mostly public servants and fewer members of the armed forces,” he said. “At this point, the KIA and anti-junta forces control it.”
The resident said that the military has been conducting airstrikes in a bid to retake control of the territory.
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KIA spokesperson Colonel Naw Bu confirmed to RFA that his group had seized control of junta outposts near Chipwi.
“We have taken over the military outpost [No. 105 Infantry Battalion] and the police station in Chipwi township,” he said, although he could not confirm “full control of the entire area.”
Hundreds flee town center
Anti-junta forces began attacking the Chipwi police station, a junta outpost in nearby Sha Ngaw village and a checkpoint controlled by the military in Lay Maing village on Sunday, as well as the junta’s No. 298 Infantry Battalion base in Tsawlaw township.
A resident, who also declined to be named, said that shops and markets were closed in Chipwi’s town center – located just 1.5 km (1 mile) from the military’s No. 105 Infantry Battalion base – after around 2,000 civilians, or some two-thirds of the urban population, fled ahead of the fighting.
Another resident of Chipwi told RFA that junta artillery fire had killed a 15-year-old girl in the area.
Attempts by RFA to contact Moe Min Thein, the junta’s Social Affairs Minister and spokesperson for Kachin state, went unanswered Monday, as did efforts to reach China’s embassy in Yangon
According to a May 23 report by Global Witness, which monitors global natural resource mining, rare-earth exploration in Kachin state’s Pang War and Chipwi townships increased 40% to more than 300 mining blocks from 2021-2023.
China’s Customs Department said that China imported more than US$1.4 billion worth of rare-earth minerals from Myanmar in 2023. China is the world’s top processor of rare-earth minerals, which are used in consumer electronics and military equipment.
In addition to rare-earth mines, China also runs the Chipwe Nge Hydroelectric Plant, which provides power to the Kachin state capital Myitkyina and nearby Waimaw township, and which is located about 10 km (6 miles) south of Chipwi.
Since the beginning of 2024, the KIA and its joint forces have seized around 220 junta outposts in eight Shan and Kachin state townships.
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.