Whoever attacks sometimes catches the wrong person. Three airstrikes by Myanmar’s junta have hit neighboring areas in recent days: first in Thailand and Bangladesh, and on Wednesday in India. Around 4pm three pitches Yak-130– and two MiG-29– Fighter jets dropped bombs on Myanmar’s Chin State, which borders India’s Mizoram state, at least five times. Two of them ended up in India.

According to the magazine Myanmar Now, which reported the Underground, five fighters from the Chin National Front (CNF), one of many multi-ethnic armed groups in border areas of Myanmar fighting the junta, were killed. “It doesn’t matter what strategy or technology the military council uses to attack us,” CNF spokesman Salai told Htet Ni. Myanmar Now. “The people are always on our side and that is a driving force for us.”

Since the coup, 2,600 people have been reported killed in attacks by the junta

Young people in particular have fled to armed group territory since the coup, after they could no longer even demonstrate in big cities without risking their lives. The attack was intended to hit a training camp run by the “People’s Defense Forces,” as the country’s pro-democracy fighters call themselves. The junta talks about terrorists.

Airstrikes were a common tactic for the junta. In October, a concert in Myanmar’s northern Kachin State was bombed, killing at least 80 people. There have also been repeated reports of the use of landmines in schools, churches and hospitals. According to the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners, some 2,600 people have died since the coup.

But why did the neighbors react so calmly to the bombs that fell on the state border? They may pursue their own interests. In Thailand, for example, the junta, which only has semi-democratic legitimacy rules, and brothers in arms do not criticize each other.

The Indian military, on the other hand, maintains a long and cordial relationship with Burma to secure a shared border of about 1,600 kilometers – with Russian weapons. India, Thailand and Russia are also among the few countries that have formal relations with the Myanmar Military Council. Then there is China, which has also supported the junta.

The distance to former friends is growing

But the mood seems to be changing slowly. At the end of last year, for example, Beijing rejected an invitation to a “Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Summit” in Myanmar, insulting the generals. China is allied with Asean nations, which insist that only Myanmar’s civilian representatives can attend their meetings. The junta became increasingly politically isolated.

There is a very specific reason for the growing skepticism: Beijing wants to protect its oil and natural gas pipelines, which run through Myanmar’s northern Shan State, the site for many of China’s “New Silk Road” infrastructure projects. This includes railways, highways and a deep sea port that will connect China to the Indian Ocean via Myanmar.

Since the coup, however, there have been repeated clashes in this area, and the military has been unable to assert itself there either. Myanmar’s underground civilian government, in turn, has called on the junta’s armed opponents not to attack Chinese investments.

This tactic can pay off the longer the conflict lasts. After Beijing and Moscow recently decided not to veto criticism of the junta by the United Nations, Louis Charbonneau of “Human Rights Watch” told the broadcaster Al Jazeera: “China and Russia’s abstentions signal that even some of the junta’s friends have lost interest in defending their atrocities.”