Nearly 20,000 Myanmar citizens have taken refuge in the Chinese border towns  after latest bout of ethnic violence broke out in the South East Asian country in recent months, serving a huge blow to the peace efforts pursued by the Myanmar's De facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Chinese foreign spokesman Geng Shuang said that humanitarian aid was being offered to those who are looking to "temporarily avoid the war" as he called for an immediate ceasefire.

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"China supports Myanmar's peace process and hopes all sides can use peaceful means to resolve their differences via dialogue and consultation," he added.

In the latest spate of on-going violence, the communist rebel group Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) launched a surprise attack on late Tuesday at government and military sites in Laukkai town, which is capital of the Kokang region located in the northern part of Shan State.    

The attack left nearly 30 people dead including five policemen and five civilians in what was among the worst ethnic attack to hit the Kokang region since 2015. Incidentally, Kokang share very close economic and cultural ties with China, with most locals speaking Chinese dialect and using Yuan as currency.

The deteriorating ethnic violence in Kokang and other border regions has become a real sensitive issue between China and Burma. The Burmese government is immensely dependent on China's clout in these border regions to quell on the ethnic violence.    

The ethnic violence in the border regions was apparently one of the raging issues during Suu Kyi's historic visit to China last year. During the same time tensions began to swirl across Sino - Burma border due to the ethnic uprising, with nearly 3,000 Myanmar citizens flocking to Chinese side by November.

Myanmar's ethnic violence is often labelled as the world's longest running civil war, with violence pre-dating the year 1948, when Burma achieved independence from the British colony.               

TagsChina and Myanmar, Myanmar refugees, China and Burma, Myanmar Ethnic Violence