By admin 
BEIJING: Beijing said on Tuesday (Nov 19) that the head of an armed ethnic minority group in Myanmar had come to China for “medical care”, after news reports in the war-torn neighboring country said he had been arrested on China’s orders.
China is a key ally and arms supplier to Myanmar’s ruling junta, but is also believed to have ties with armed ethnic minorities who control territory along the country’s shared border, where fighting often flares.
Local media in Myanmar reported this week that Chinese authorities had arrested Peng Deren, the head of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), one of the country’s main rebel groups.
Asked to confirm the reports at a regular news conference on Tuesday, Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said Peng “had previously applied to come to China for medical care, and is currently undergoing treatment and recovery.”
Ministry spokesman Lin Jian provided no further details on Peng’s condition or whereabouts.
Peng – also known as Peng Dashun – keeps a low profile and usually refuses media interviews.
The MNDAA is one of dozens of rebel groups in Myanmar that have done so fought against the army for decades for autonomy and control over lucrative resources, including jade, timber and opium.
Myanmar’s current junta chief, Min Aung Hlaing, made a name for himself as a regional commander in 2009 and ousted the MNDAA from Laukkai, a city in Shan State.
The region borders China’s Yunnan province and is a key part of Beijing’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
In January last year, the MNDAA retook Laukkai after more than 2,000 junta troops surrendered there in one of the military’s worst defeats in decades.
In August they went even further, conquering the city of Lashio – about 100 km from its traditional homeland, the Kokang region, around Laukkai.
Lashio was the largest urban center to fall to one of Myanmar’s numerous armed ethnic minority groups – which have been battling central authorities on and off for decades – since the military first seized power in 1962.