BBC interview suggests Chinese backing for Myanmar military's anti‑Rohingya operation

BiBicl BBC World News - Robert Lawrence Kuhn - September 14, 2017 Host: Why is the mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar continuing. Today on Impact we bring you different bl 8 8 ra : perspectives, and one comes from Myanmar’s state media . ~~ Ah oles #5 which claims the military has China’s backing for what it calls an “Anti-Terror Operation.” It claims the Chinese ambassador told hig- level officials that the operation should be treated as an internal affair. Let’s get insight from Beijing where we're joined by Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn, a long-term advisor to the Chinese government and the author of How China’s Leaders Think. Robert, thank you for joining us here on impact, and what do you think is the Chinese interest here? RLK: China’s foreign policy is clear historically, but it has been changing under President Xi Jinping. President Xi has a at oat | grand vision to create an international community of common EIEN WORLD NEws * (UGE cow 22158.18 39.32. ° WASO destiny, as he calls it, via a new kind of global governance. So, in this situation, what is China’s position? Historically, of 9009 Local Time 20:12} course, China’s cardinal principle has been non-interference . across international boundaries. But there’s much more here to the story. First of all, China will always skew to supporting the existing government - especially in cases of minority issues because China of course has its own minorities and would not want some new general principle of “responsibility to protect” to be used in an exaggerated way, because it could be applied to China’s situation in Xinjiang or elsewhere. RLK: But there’s more complexity with Myanmar because Myanmar an ASEAN country and China has great political - interest in ASEAN, particularly in the South China Sea where ROBERT LAWRENCE KUHN Vietnam, potentially Indonesia, Philippines (for a time), were Author, 'How China's Leaders Think' EIEN WORLD NEWS 3K PAGE facebook.com/bbcnews HEADLINES Bate te Gat, ww! all claimants against China, and China needs support in that HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_033253