By Ko Myo
YANGON, Myanmar — The People’s Liberation Army (PLA)—the armed wing of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB)—has forcefully rejected speculation regarding external state sponsorship, asserting that the faction has not received a single yuan or dollar from foreign governments, including neighboring China.
The high-profile clarification was broadcast by PLA General Secretary Comrade Ni Ni Kyaw via his official social media platforms, emerging in direct response to persistent skepticism and criticisms targeted at the group by certain factions within the country’s broader anti-junta revolutionary alliance.
Comrade Ni Ni Kyaw stated that despite geopolitical rumors, the PLA has operating under absolute financial autonomy. “We have not received a single Chinese yuan from Beijing, nor have we accepted one Thai baht, an Indian rupee, or a single US dollar from Western administrations,” the general secretary clarified, defending the political integrity of the communist insurgent force.
The statement emphasized that top-tier command elements—including Comrade Ni Ni Kyaw and PLA Commander-in-Chief Dr. Kyaw Maung—are currently embedded directly within the mainland territory of Myanmar, coordinating military campaigns against the ruling military council alongside frontline cadres and allied ethnic armed organizations (EAOs).
According to leadership logs, the PLA’s capacity to sustain its continuous combat operations and expand its active theaters across multiple regions inside Myanmar is fueled strictly by voluntary domestic and international diaspora funding, local food supplies, and inter-factional logistics sharing with its immediate revolutionary allies.
“The ultimate lifelines of this brutal revolutionary journey belong exclusively to the sovereign populace, our active battlefield alliances, and the dedicated commanders, soldiers, and communist cadres who have laid down their lives on the ground,” Ni Ni Kyaw remarked. The secretary concluded his brief with an ideological tribute, praying for the eternal legacy of the fallen combatants whom he designated as “revolutionary martyrs.”
Independent security analysts note that the CPB’s military resurrection through the PLA following the 2021 military coup has been a subject of intense scrutiny within Myanmar’s complex resistance landscape. Because of the CPB’s historical, decades-old ideological ties to Beijing during the Cold War era, contemporary critics have frequently questioned whether the newly formed PLA functions under the covert influence of Chinese regional intelligence networks.
However, field monitors evaluate that the modern PLA has operated primarily as a decentralized co-belligerent alongside major ethnic resistance forces in Upper Myanmar and the dry zone, relying heavily on localized recruitment and inter-organizational weapon supply chains.
By publicly reinforcing its financial independence from foreign capitals, the PLA leadership is visibly seeking to defuse domestic nationalist criticisms and solidify its legitimacy as a homegrown, populace-driven actor dedicated entirely to the structural overthrow of Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s military dictatorship.
