Heading Toward Peaceful Coexistence: The Effects of the Improvement in Sino-Burmese Relations from 1953 to 1955

Abstract

Since coming to power in Myanmar, the National League for Democracy (NLD) has unambiguously indicated that it will carry out Burma’s foreign policy as it was established during the country’s foundation (i.e., an “independent, active and non-aligned foreign policy”). Retrospectively, we can trace the historical precedents of the NLD’s foreign policy to Burma’s foreign policy in the period of the Korean War in 1953. Using Burmese, Chinese, Indian, and US official documentation, and following an international history approach, I explore the background, process, and effects of Sino-Burmese relations in the period of 1953 to 1955 as an entirety. Thus, in this article I offer important historical insights to contemporary Burmese foreign relations.