Every January 4th, people will always see on TV a military parade unit holding Type 95 Chinese rifles and kicking Chinese goose steps. However, this unit is not the People's Liberation Army of China, but the National People's Army of China's neighbor: Myanmar.
Myanmar's military has always been evaluated by media around the world as the army that "most resembles the Chinese People's Liberation Army". This is not just because their army infantry, equipped with Chinese 95 rifles, goose-stepping in the Chinese People's Liberation Army's military parade, has very similar faces to the Chinese. Even their air force and other military equipment are equipped with equipment imported from China. Whether it is the J-7 fighter jet or the K8 trainer aircraft , Myanmar's troops, from the army to the air force, from the equipment to the training methods, all have a strong "Chinese style".
(Myanmar People's Defense Force)
So, what is the reason why the Myanmar national army has many similarities with the Chinese People's Liberation Army? What kind of indissoluble bond does Myanmar’s military have with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army?
In fact, Myanmar, a neighboring country located in the southeast of China, has had many ties with China in history, and this is the main reason why today's Myanmar and the Chinese People's Liberation Army have many similarities.
The national history of Myanmar is close to more than 2,000 years ago. During the Han Dynasty period in China, a land trade route was opened between China and India, passing through today's Myanmar area on the way. An ethnic minority called the Mon people has gradually grown and prospered due to the prosperity of the trade routes between China and India. This ethnic minority established a settlement city in a place called Bagan , and Bagan City is the prototype of today's Myanmar country and civilization.
During the Three Kingdoms period, the Shu Han regime located in today's Sichuan and Yunnan provinces of China expanded its territory to the south. Its border included parts of today's Kachin State in Myanmar. It was also the earliest historical exchange between China and Myanmar that can be traced back. By the 11th century AD, after a long period of development, the city of Bagan, located in today's Myanmar, finally developed and expanded into a country that began to take shape. This country believed in Buddhism and was between China and India. Therefore, it also formed a national cultural characteristic between the customs of China and India. This was the first feudal dynasty in the history of Myanmar: the Bagan dynasty .
(Old City of the Bagan Dynasty in Myanmar)
The Bagan Dynasty period in Myanmar coincided with the Song Dynasty period when China's commercial trade was highly prosperous and developed. During this period, the trade exchanges between China and Myanmar were very close. At the same time, Myanmar also sent a large number of official personnel to study in the Song Dynasty. Myanmar's imitation of China in various aspects such as politics, economy, culture and military affairs had actually begun in that era. However, the good times did not last long. The Song Dynasty was overthrown by the more powerful Mongolian minority regime in northern China in the 13th century AD. The Song Dynasty in China was replaced by the Yuan Dynasty.
After the Yuan Dynasty, ruled by the Mongolian minority, unified China, the extremely expansionary Mongolian regime immediately began to launch a war against the Burmese Bagan Dynasty adjacent to China. The Bagan dynasty of Myanmar, which had just established its country, was naturally no match for the Mongolian cavalry. Therefore, the Bagan dynasty of Myanmar quickly fell under the iron heel of the Mongolian cavalry. lost its national independence and became a vassal state of the Chinese feudal dynasty during the Yuan Dynasty.
(Mongolian Cavalry)
However, it was also during the period when Mongolia occupied the Myanmar region that the cultural exchanges between Myanmar and mainland China continued to deepen. At this time, the Myanmar army changed from imitating the Song Dynasty to imitating the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, it became a half-Han style, half-Mongolian style army.However, the rule of the Yuan Dynasty was very short-lived. In the Central Plains of China, the Yuan Dynasty ruled for less than a hundred years, and the Yuan Dynasty controlled Myanmar for less than twenty years. After the power of the Mongolian cavalry retreated, Myanmar entered the historical era of vassal hegemony. However, no vassal state gave up imitating the Central Plains Dynasty of China because they believed that only by imitating the Central Plains Dynasty of China could they be better in the struggle for hegemony in Myanmar.
In 1368 AD, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born in the peasant uprising army, established the Ming Dynasty and ordered General Xu Da to lead the army and launch the Northern Expedition to eliminate the remaining forces of the Yuan Dynasty. After the Yuan Dynasty was conquered and China once again ushered in the change and unification of dynasties, Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, began to order the Ming army to march to other border areas of China to eliminate other remaining Mongolian forces that had fled to neighboring countries. In the Yunnan border area, Ming Dynasty general Muying attacked the remaining Mongolian forces in today's Myanmar and opened up territory for the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty divided some border areas from Yunnan to Myanmar into "Three, Four and Six" for administrative jurisdiction, which further promoted cultural communication and exchanges between China and Myanmar.
In the 16th century AD, during the struggle for hegemony among Myanmar's heroes, a force named Toungoo suddenly emerged and opened up the second feudal unified dynasty in the history of Myanmar: Toungoo dynasty. After the establishment of the Toungoo Dynasty, Myanmar immediately launched raids on the border areas between China and Myanmar. At this time, the Toungoo Dynasty was in full swing, and China's Ming Dynasty was on the verge of collapse in its later years. Therefore, Myanmar once occupied part of the Yun-Myanmar border area that had been occupied by the Ming Dynasty in the past. It was also at that time that the geographical map of Myanmar's current country began to take shape.
In 1644 AD, the prosperous Ming Dynasty completely collapsed due to the invasion of the Manchus outside the Pass and the wave of domestic peasant uprisings. With the entry of the Manchu and Qing armies, the Southern Ming Dynasty that retreated to southern China also collapsed rapidly. The emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty fled in a hurry to China's neighboring Myanmar in order to survive, and sought the protection of the Toungoo Dynasty there. In order to combat the Ming Dynasty forces in Myanmar, the Qing Dynasty broke out two wars with Myanmar, which ended with Myanmar handing over the Nanming Emperor and surrendering to the Qing Dynasty.
(Qing-Burmese War)
In modern times, the feudal countries of the Qing Dynasty and Myanmar have experienced varying degrees of decline. Among them, Myanmar, which is closer to India, was invaded by the British, the Western colonizer, earlier than the Qing Dynasty. In the 19th century AD, Britain began to invade Burma on a large scale. After occupying the entire territory of Burma, the United Kingdom classified Burma into British India, and it once became part of the jurisdiction of the British East India Company.
In 1937, the Anti-Japanese War broke out in an all-round way, and the Japanese army began to invade China on a large scale. On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the U.S. military at Pearl Harbor and launched war against the United Kingdom, the United States, and other countries. Burma, which was still a British colony at the time, became the target of Japanese attack. In the view of the Japanese army, as long as they capture Burma and cut off China's store roads, the Japanese army can achieve the strategic goal of completely blocking China and at the same time marching towards the British Indian colonies.
(Chinese Expeditionary Force)
At that time, the people of China and Myanmar were facing a common enemy: the Japanese invaders. In order to smash the Japanese army's arrogant plan, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the elite troops of the Kuomintang army to form the Chinese Expeditionary Force, which represented China and went to Burma to cooperate with the British army abroad and fight the Japanese army . In the end, this army, led by Kuomintang Du Yuming, Dai Anlan and other generals, successfully withstood the Japanese offensive in Burma, preventing the Japanese army from succeeding in their conspiracy. The history of the Chinese and Burmese peoples' joint resistance against Japan also marked the history of friendly exchanges between the two peoples.
It was also during this historical period that the militaries of China and Myanmar learned from each other. The Myanmar army, which has been following the example of the Chinese army since ancient times, has also become a devout student following China on the road to building a modern army.
In 1945, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Britain experienced two world wars, and its overall national strength declined sharply. It successively withdrew from India, Pakistan, and Myanmar. Myanmar, which had been enslaved by the British and other Western colonists for a hundred years, finally ushered in their long-awaited independence. At the same time, within China, a war broke out a year later between the People's Liberation Army led by the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang reactionary army led by Chiang Kai-shek.
Due to the correct leadership of our party and the firm support of the Chinese people, Chiang Kai-shek, who used to have millions of troops and relied on the blessing of beautiful weapons and equipment, actually retreated steadily in less than three years and retreated to the peaceful island of Taiwan overseas. However, Chiang Kai-shek was naturally unwilling to fail. Therefore, he assisted the Kuomintang Li Mi troops in the southwest region of China, allowing them to advance into the "three no matter" areas on the border between China and Myanmar, and continue to carry out guerrilla warfare against the Chinese People's Liberation Army, in an attempt to make a comeback in the future.
(Kuomintang troops in Myanmar)
Although these Kuomintang troops can be regarded as a group of stragglers in front of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, for the Myanmar People's Army, which has just founded the country and lacks combat experience, these Kuomintang troops rely on favorable terrain and continue to carry out guerrilla warfare . In addition, they have equipment produced by the United States. They are indeed very difficult opponents. As for their activities in Myanmar, not only harassed residents living in China, but also burned, killed, and looted in Myanmar. They committed all kinds of evil and caused a headache for the Myanmar authorities.
In order to solve this problem, Myanmar has protested to the United Nations several times, demanding that the Chiang Kai-shek regime in Taiwan should withdraw its troops from Myanmar, a non-belligerent country, as soon as possible. However, Chiang Kai-shek and the US authorities who supported Chiang Kai-shek shamelessly reached a tacit agreement and acquiesced in the United Nations to the Kuomintang troops' illegal invasion of other countries. In desperation, Myanmar had no choice but to establish diplomatic relations with New China in 1950 and begged the Chinese People's Liberation Army to help Myanmar eliminate the remaining Kuomintang troops in their country.
(Kuomintang troops in Myanmar)
Taking into account the Chinese people's need for long-term peace and stability and the Burmese people's urgent need for help, the Chinese People's Liberation Army finally agreed to Myanmar's request, and dispatched large-scale troops in the 1950s to clear out the remaining Kuomintang troops in Myanmar. Finally, in the 1960s, the remaining Kuomintang forces in Myanmar were finally completely wiped out with the cooperation of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and the Myanmar National Army, and the people of the two countries lived a peaceful and happy life.
However, the Chinese People's Liberation Army also deeply understands the principle of "teaching a man to fish is worse than teaching him to fish." As a third world country, Myanmar, which has just gained independence, may face the coveting of great powers at the beginning of its founding, just like the New China founded in 1949. Compared with Myanmar, China, with its vast territory and abundant resources, has better conditions for military development and experience in military construction. Therefore, while the Chinese People's Liberation Army assisted Myanmar in wiping out the remnants of the Kuomintang in the 1950s, also brought some of the Chinese People's Liberation Army's military equipment and training methods to Myanmar. Since then, Myanmar has formed a tradition and habit of imitating the People's Liberation Army's army-building strategies.
To this day, Myanmar's imitation of the Chinese People's Liberation Army's army-building strategy, its use and popularization of Chinese equipment, and its deep penetration into the marrow of the Myanmar national army have become part of the soul of the Myanmar army. This is also the best testimony of the friendship between the peoples of China and Myanmar.
