Myanmar

Min Aung Hlaing is greeted by an Indonesian official upon arrival at the airport on the outskirts of Jakarta in April 2021: The presence of the Senior General at the leaders' meeting in Jakarta emphasized the ASEAN family.
Opinion

India should invite Myanmar's foreign minister to ASEAN meet

Giving Naypyitaw the cold shoulder is not in New Delhi's interests

6 June 2022
After the military takeover in February 2021, foreigners who had invested in Myanmar's energy sector began fleeing the country, leaving severe power shortages in their wake.
Myanmar Crisis

Myanmar energy crisis deepens as power plant investors balk

Military's new minister signals a tougher approach toward businesses

5 June 2022
A buyer checks a jade stone near a mine in resource-rich Kachin State, Myanmar, in 2015. The "self-reliant revolution" of Myanmar's Kachin ethnic minority is made possible by taxes on jade, gold, timber, opium and other resources that stream into China.
Life

Inside Myanmar's strategic 'land of jade'

Military takeover has triggered a fresh drive for Kachin autonomy

27 May 2022
Nikkei Asia won prizes for its coverage of Asia's "tech underclass" and for its cover image on the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan
Announcements

Nikkei Asia wins five prizes at WAN-IFRA Asia awards

Judges recognize coronavirus pandemic coverage, photography and U.S.-China feature

23 May 2022
Myanmar poet San Nyein Oo -- now living in exile -- reads a statement of condolence from the local poets' union for Thet Naing Win, who was shot and killed by security forces during protests against the military takeover, in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Feb. 23, 2021. (Getty Images)
Life

Myanmar poets speak out from the front lines of protest

Repression burnishes survivor's guilt and creative resistance

20 May 2022
This year's Thingyan water festival was muted as opponents of the Myanmar military urged a boycott.
Travel & Leisure

Myanmar embraces staycations to escape political tension

Local residents snag hotel deals as demand from foreigners fades

18 May 2022
On the Myanmar side of the border with Thailand, the ordination hall at the Wah Fah Waing Inn monastery now sits atop a fortified base. (All photos by Lorcan Lovett)
Life

Guns, not monks, at monastery on Myanmar's Thai border

Refugees and orphan monks live meters from the army they escaped

11 May 2022
A number of countries have downgraded their diplomatic representation in Myanmar, led by its military chief, Min Aung Hlaing. (Source photo by MYANMAR MILITARY INFORMATION TEAM/AFP/Jiji) 
Myanmar Crisis

Diplomatic snubs isolate Myanmar's military regime

Western governments downgrade ties with Naypyidaw

9 May 2022
The Singapore Foreign Ministry's ambassador-at-large says countries are increasingly taking an issue-by-issue approach to diplomacy, rather than simply aligning themselves with one big power or another.
Interview

ASEAN's Ukraine split shows desire for space between powers: envoy

Singapore's Chan Heng Chee says neither West nor China should take others for granted

6 May 2022
Eden Group Chairman Chit Khine, seen here in a 2016 photo, was detained on April 25 after returning to Myanmar from a trip overseas, according to local media. (Photo by Kentaro Iwamoto)
Myanmar Crisis

Myanmar charges tycoon close to Suu Kyi's party with graft

Eden Group founder Chit Khine is National League for Democracy supporter

28 April 2022
Myanmar began requiring this month that all foreign currency entering the country be converted to kyat.
Currencies

Myanmar exempts foreign investments from currency conversion rule

Diplomats and U.N. agencies also on exemption list

22 April 2022
Myanmar's ruler, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, has arrested a number of associates of Shwe Mann, a rival and a former speaker of the lower house of parliament. (Source photo by Reuters)
Myanmar Crisis

Myanmar's purge of tycoon highlights tension within regime

Military chief may follow 'Xi Jinping's playbook' to eliminate rivals, expert says

17 April 2022
Foreign-made automatic rifles are expensive in Myanmar, prompting some members of the opposition-linked People's Defense Force to make their own weapons. 
Myanmar Crisis

Armed rebels in rural Myanmar keep up campaign against military

Military forces razing villages accused of cooperating with insurgents

15 April 2022
Production in Myanmar's Yadana gas field faces possible disruption as Western operation partners prepare to pull out. (Photo courtesy of PTTEP)
Energy

Russia-Ukraine war prompts PTTEP to produce more oil and gas

Thai exploration arm invests massively to boost profits, secure energy supply

14 April 2022
Myanmar military soldiers in front of the Central Bank of Myanmar in Yangon in 2021. Than Than Swe, 55, one of the bank's deputy governors, was shot at close range by two armed assailants at her home in Yangon on Thursday morning. 
Myanmar Crisis

Shooting of Myanmar central banker shows new forex-rule backlash

Business and embassies protest order to convert dollar inflows to local currency

8 April 2022
A family crosses a river as they flee from Myanmar army attacks in Kayin State last December. (Courtesy of Free Burma Rangers)
Life

No end in sight for Myanmar's Karen insurgency

Military takeover has reignited the ethnic minority group's seven-decade revolt

8 April 2022
Four men were arrested in New York in a sprawling drugs for weapons scheme.  (Photo courtesy of the Department of Justice)
Politics

Yakuza leader arrested in U.S. for drugs for missiles plot

Surface-to-air missiles to Myanmar to be paid for with heroin and meth

8 April 2022
The kyat has weakened since Myanmar's military took control of the government in February 2021.
Currencies

Myanmar's forced currency conversions seen making few exceptions

Companies fear disruptions to payments for imports and exports

7 April 2022
Myanmar leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, right, shakes hands with Cambodian Foreign Minister and ASEAN Special Envoy to Myanmar Prak Sokhonn during a meeting in Naypyitaw on March 21. (Military True News Information Team via AP)
The Nikkei View

Myanmar's generals must be pressed to keep ASEAN promises

Military government should only be invited to meetings if progress is made

30 March 2022
Peng Jiasheng, the founding leader of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDDA), an armed group based in the Kokang region of northern Shan state, who died on Feb. 16 at the age of 94. 
Obituaries

Peng Jiasheng, life and times of a Kokang warlord

'King' of Myanmar's Chinese micro-state highlights web of Sino-Burmese connections

29 March 2022
Japan's top oil refiner Eneos Holdings decided to exit Myanmar's natural gas business, following Mitsubishi Corp., which announced in February that it would withdraw from the project. (Source photo by Reuters) 
Myanmar Crisis

Japan's Eneos to pull plug on Myanmar gas business

Decision follows growing criticism that project has funded country's military

25 March 2022
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and his army ousted Myanmar's elected government in a military takeover on Feb. 1 last year, and Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 this year. (Nikkei montage/Reuters/Getty Images/PTTEP）
25 March 2022
Refugees who fled a flare-up in fighting between the Myanmar army and ethnic minority rebels prepare to return across the border from Thailand in December 2021. 
Myanmar Crisis

ASEAN envoy sees tough road for cease-fire in first Myanmar trip

Cambodia's Prak Sokhonn denies his trip lends legitimacy to military government

24 March 2022
With Telenor's departure, Myanmar loses one of its last major Western investors.
Telecommunication

Myanmar military approves Norwegian Telenor's exit

Telecom company's departure symbolizes difficulties faced by foreign investors

18 March 2022
The Shwe gas field is the only resource development project in which Posco International has a stake. (Photo courtesy of Posco International)
Myanmar Crisis

Asian majors keep Myanmar gas pumping despite EU sanctions

Posco and PTT expand footprint as Total and Chevron head to exit

17 March 2022