Is Beijing Backing the Myanmar Coup?

Myanmar migrants hold up portraits of Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader who was recently detained by the military in a coup, as they take part in a demonstration outside the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok on Feb. 1. Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images

Many international observers were caught by surprise when the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s military, began hinting at a coup in the country last week, foreshadowing their seizure of power on Feb. 1.

It is not yet clear whether there was an immediate fear that the recent federal elections, in which Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won by a landslide, might have given the pro-democracy forces in the country the leverage to try stripping some power from the still-entrenched military establishment, or whether other recent events pushed Gen. Min Aung Hlaing into action. The pretext for the coup is alleged electoral fraud during the federal elections in November 2020—eerily similar to the claims of the Donald Trump campaign in the United States, and equally lacking in merit.