China’s Role as a Third-Party Mediator in Myanmar’s Peace Process

• Main Authors: Raymond Pagnucco, 白瑞明
• Other Authors: Huang, Kwei-Bo
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/83xk52

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 國際研究英語碩士學位學程(IMPIS) === 107 === Since the beginning of Thein Sein’s ambitious plan to create an all-inclusive National Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), the international community and the United Nations has been steadfast in its support for peace in Myanmar. Now, five years later, with millions of dollars of donor money spent, only 10 of the current 21 ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) signing the NCA. The peace process lead by Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD appears to have all but failed. Meanwhile, the international community has seemingly withered into the background as China assumed the leading role as a third-party mediator in Myanmar’s peace process. This study looks at why has China been successful at filling the role of a third-party mediator in Myanmar’s peace process by examining Beijing’s geopolitical, geostrategic, domestic, and economic strategies in Myanmar, including China’s need to see stability along its southern border. China’s use of a multi-layered engagement strategy that targets not just stakeholders but the civilian population of Myanmar, has made China’s influence in the peace process more salient than that of international community and the UN. Furthermore, this study investigates the two leading mediation models the “Insider-Partial Model” and the “Outsider-Neutral Model” to understand what kind of mediator China is and which role China inhabits. The findings suggest China fits the “Insider-Partial Model” due to historical, cultural, and economic linkages with Myanmar, as well as China’s long-standing relationship with the EAOs along its southern border. In fact, China inhabits a unique role that is part mediator and part stakeholder, who own self-interests seem to take precedence over solving 70 years of intra-state conflict in Myanmar. At the time this study was written, China still has yet to successful bring the non-signatories closer to signing the NCA.