One week ago, the military detained Myanmar’s top civilian leadership and declared control of the country. The news has yet to prompt hot takes on the Left or Right.
Summary
A week after the military coup in Myanmar, Prime Minister Aung San Suu Kyi is still being detained while protests are spreading across the Southeast Asian nation.
- Internet access that was blocked nationwide in an attempt to help disperse protests was restored a day later.
- Social media platforms are still banned despite the restoration of internet access.
- President Biden recently hinted at re-enforcing sanctions on Myanmar, which had been eased by the Obama Administration to “encourage democratization.”
- Myanmar was a topic of discussion between American Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Chinese counterpart, in which Blinken urged China to condemn the military coup.
- The New York Times explained the long relationship China has had with Myanmar, signaling its closeness with the military leadership which just seized power gives the rival a leg up on the United States in resolving the situation.
- CNN broke from its usual “everything is Trump’s fault” to provide a deep analysis of Myanmar’s history of military control and how the past decade of semi-liberalization was a mirage.
- Vox detailed the difficulties Biden will face in putting his “pro-democracy” international agenda into practice, using Myanmar and the arrest of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny as examples.
- In a profile of the top leaders in Myanmar, the Wall Street Journal alluded to a more personal animosity toward Prime Minister Aung San Suu Kyi among the military brass, who kept her under house arrest for years and rigged reforms to ensure she never attained independent control.
- Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan wrote a column calling for increased American isolationism, that we have no dog in the fight in Myanmar and saying Americans would be furious if Putin openly cheered a revolution in America.
- An opinion piece in National Review blasted Biden for “catchphrase diplomacy”, including the proposed response to the Myanmar coup in a list of examples of how Biden fails to meet the moment.
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© Dallas Gerber, 2021
