Update | China dismisses report that hundreds of its citizens are trapped in fighting in Myanmar
Embassy officials have visited Kachin state and found no evidence Chinese are in danger amid fighting between government troops and ethnic rebels
China’s embassy in Myanmar says reports that hundreds of Chinese citizens are trapped in the north of the country, caught up in fighting between government troops and ethnic rebels, are untrue.
Officials from a taskforce from the embassy who arrived in Myitkyina on Monday, the capital of Kachin state, told national television in China that the reports were unfounded.
An unnamed intelligence official with ethnic-Kachin rebels told the state-run Global Times newspaper in China that hundreds of Chinese citizens, including jade dealers, gold miners and lumberjacks were among 2,000 civilians trapped in the region during fighting.
The embassy said it had not been contacted by any Chinese citizens or their families saying they were in danger, the report said.
Meanwhile, another group of officials from the embassy are due to visit Chinese workers on Tuesday after they were detained earlier this month for illegal logging in Kachin state and will “provide consular assistance”, the state television report said.
Some 146 people, including 126 Chinese citizens, were arrested in raids on illegal logging operations that began on January 4 in Kachin, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported, citing official media in Myanmar.