In Mandalay‚ Myanmars second-biggest city an explosion hit the Chinese Consulate on 10/18/24. The blast caused slight damage to the buildings roof tiles‚ but didnt hurt anyone. This event shows the tricky situation in Myanmar where the military government is fighting against different groups who dont like its rule.
China is a big friend of Myanmars military which took over the country in early 21 kicking out the government people chose. Since then‚ the army has been in a tough fight with pro-democracy fighters and groups from different ethnic backgrounds.
Last year‚ the military got into trouble when some ethnic armed groups took over important areas near the China border. This made things harder for the army all over Myanmar and China started to worry if the military government could stay in control.
China has been trying to get some of the stronger ethnic groups (who it gets along with) to tell the groups who took over land last year to stop fighting. People think China was okay with that fighting at first because it helped stop big crimes like online scams and people-selling which were mostly done by Chinese people and made China look bad.
China gives Myanmarʼs military lots of weapons (Russia does too) and buys and sells stuff with Myanmar. Its also put loads of money into things like mines and oil pipelines in the country. Most countries in the West dont like Myanmarʼs military government and wont work with it because of what it did in 21 and how it treats people badly.
The military said its looking into who did the attack to catch the “terrorists“. Theyʼve made the already tight security around the consulate even tighter and closed nearby roads. The main group against military rule said it doesnt like the attack and doesnt want to cause problems between different races or religions