The Dragon on the White Elephant: Two “Chinas” Fracture Myanmar’s State-Building in the Cold War

Abstract

Myanmar’s state-building was constrained by the interaction between pre programmed crises and foreign intervention. The collapse of the promises of autonomy in the 1947 Constitution transformed communist and ethnic insurgencies into enduring challenges to state authority. The spillover of the Chinese Civil War further weakened Yangon’s ability to consolidate sovereignty, as the KMT retreated into northern Myanmar and the PRC supported the Burmese Communist Party (BCP). Following the 1962 coup, Ne Win’s centralization policies and the 1967 anti-Chinese riots intensified Beijing’s support for the BCP Northeastern Command, which evolved into a de facto buffer state, resembling a modern tributary system and a contemporary form of Zomia under Chinese influence. After 1989, the BCP collapsed following the withdrawal of CCP support, and the ceasefire system institutionalized fragmented sovereignty rather than national integration. Myanmar thus emerged as a product of failed state-building shaped by colonial legacies, Cold War geopolitics and competing visions of sovereignty.