the country ali thank you very much for the update of course we'll be checking in regularly with you for the latest say on the situation in myanmar is our correspondents live there from young gone or this been a reaction international reaction is coming in slowly we've heard from the u.s. there's been a statement from the white house that bring in katrina use our correspondent in beijing katrina until the end of military rule in myanmar and 2011 the military of course had support from china china keep an ear a big player in myanmar how will they be viewing these events unfolding today. well the certainly going to be watching very very closely we haven't had any official response from beijing yet but we're expecting that at least over the next few hours and as you mentioned mayan mars is a key i live for china is a very important player in the way chinese china sees it in terms of its influence in the asia region and china is mine was large is trading partner it's the 2nd largest source of foreign direct investment china also shares

a 2100 kilometer border with my ammo so mylar is crucial for beijing is geo political interests in the area now since she has come to power she has recognized the economic lines that mine the has on beijing she's been cultivating this economic relationship. has been one of the participants quite enthusiastic participants of the belgian road initiative by china is she was also a signatory to the e.p. the regional comprehensive economic partnership and there was also of course the china economic chordal which was she was in constant talks with china in terms of developing and it wasn't just economic of course they did was also one of the key supporters of my arm when it came to my views and approaches to the wreckage of people and in turn my i am a supporter and they doing when it came to the treatment of the we given chandon the north so it's claim over taiwan as well but what's important to note is that

this relationship although very important it has been under strain over the last few years especially since also in sujit had been in power we see this and and china sentiment slowly growing in lie on mass among the people people increasingly suspicious of china's growing influence of china's expanding business deals were an ongoing situation was cognizant of that she was listening to the people in terms of their concerns about china and she was also herself wanting to become less reliant on beijing and she was kind of making slower. away from this in beijing definitely noticed we had seen that there was a significant drop in trade between china and my on just in the past few years also there were a lot of chinese infrastructure projects that in man mo that were stalled for a few reasons so we had for example this gargantuan hydroelectric dam which chinese investors some $3600000000.00 into and that was suspended the construction of that

was suspended in 2011 due to environmental concerns are definitely china was not happy about that now what's significant here when it comes to this crew is that china's foreign minister one he actually visited my and my just 3 weeks ago he sat down with aung sun suu kyi they signed a number of memorandums for example they wanted to they both agreed to continue the china where project china was very keen on and also key to know is that wang you also sat down with landmines nutri commander in chief on me and leon so we also had talks with him right now it's important to note that china has always been course with the myin military especially even called in and it's fair to say that china china's influence in my on there was greater in fact before he came to power so certainly it's not difficult to imagine that miners military would have potentially spoken to china consulted china at least communicated their intentions before

launching this coup interesting that possibly as you say china might have been aware of this action that the military is taking today this will likely lead to some sort of condemnation or perhaps even sanctions. from from the west some thinking here from the u.s. or the european union how might china react to that and what sort of support could be provide today to myanmar's military. well it's interesting because beijing has always played this noninterference approach when it comes to what's happening inside countries i think beijing as long as they jews know or is it's an interest on affected it's always had this stance of you know what's what's happening in my and more what's happening in a particular country is the business of that country will trust that it will resolve itself and definitely it's had a hands off approach as i mentioned you were hinges for example and it's it's it's not easy it's easy to imagine that china might have

a similar approach when it comes to this crude but you know it will say that whatever is happening is is the business of my am are in hopes they will resolve itself of course that's the public image of what it will say at the back end china will definitely be making sure that its own geopolitical interests in my and must safeguard it as i mentioned i wanted it for a significant player in the asian region for china yeah i was going to ask you what we're trying to add in the game from the military being john ging in myanmar. well time know is that the military it has been friendly with china so when when the military was in power when the junta was in power it had a very close relationship with china with very few political issues that mine did not support china with and also china has always backed the military junta was seen as a kind of protector of the military junta when it came to example for example to any actions that the international community might have made in the united nations

china would block those actions and protect the military and using its veto power in the united nations china is also almost like an economic backer of the military junta there store many projects there are so many. there so much trade that goes on which the military junta would not have been able to assist the supporters continue building up its infrastructure that were crucial for the governance for the newsroom to have china's backing here and at the same time i guess there was a kind of quid pro quo why on the would back china in terms of any political movement in the south asia region land would continue to support china with any controversial issues when it comes to taiwan the hong kong for example which man was seen as a key and reliable ally for china when it comes to beijing in its interests beijing wants to make sure that land must stays that way no matter what happens whether it's all the military beijing wants to ensure that its own interests are protected

in miami remains a safe player for it in what china can says it's why the backyard of the age of 8 a region thank you katrina you from beijing there of course we'll be checking in with you once there's official reaction from beijing to the events in myanmar let's speak some more about this now to melissa crouch was a professor at the university of new south wales in the author of a book on the constitution of myanmar she's via skype from sydney thank you so much for being with us once again so we have a significant military intervention to be. mark a cool let's talk about the constitution which you know very well the military spent a lot of time drafting this constitution and said. early as last week they were saying that they would abide by this constitution what happened what why not now is it clear to you what their game plan is. well the military line is that they are still abiding by the constitution and i think that's what a lot of countries currently missing so some of the statements that have come out

from media in the last hour or so is that they are using section 417 of the constitution which is basically an emergency powers provision however there are a few catches here so 1st of all that provision is a power is supposed to be used by the president no it appears that the president himself would have been very unlikely to have initiated a constitutional motion see in this way it appears what might have happened is that the military is claiming the vice president is no longer sorry the president is no longer in office the vice president that means can step up and one of the vice presidents is a military officer that vice president then potentially exercise these constitutional emergency powers in he's in his role as acting president and that is the basis on which the military is claiming that this is actually constitutional now there's a lot of questions there about that as to whether that account is is right but it

does appear at this stage to be the case so how are they justifying from what you've heard how the justifying the detention of ants on sochi and all these figures from the national league for democracy. but look at this stage i don't think we have further details on that they are still. promoting the line of voter fraud but what they have said is that sway has one of the vice presidents is acting president and they have said that the commander in chief is now in control according to the constitutional image and superpowers and that means that he he is now in control for one year and that's according to the constitution this means that the commander in chief in many ways can do what he likes he can play certain restrictions we might see a curfew in place at some point in the next little while or restrictions on freedom of movement of treatment expression and so on but we're waiting to hear more on

that account that the myanmar constitution forbids nonsense which of course from becoming president because she has children who are foreign nationals but at the same time i mean in the last 2 years she created this role for herself she was a de facto leader of myanmar. how how will this you know and she was extremely popular obviously in myanmar having won the recent elections her party anyway when winning the recent elections with a big majority how will this be viewed by the people oh look this is devastating i think a lot of people had faith in the electoral process last year and that was demonstrated by the way in which people voted and so i think for the military to now go and do this without providing any evidence whatsoever. to freud really undermines the credibility of the entire system that they have built and it undermines even just the credits to credibility of the very idea of

a constitutional motion see i mean this is not a legitimate constitutional emergency. ok so we've just had reaction from from the united nations the secretary general condemning the detention of entente sochi and other political leaders. so you know what what what actions you expect from the international community besides the condemnation of course. yes look this is obviously a big issue for the international community i mean on one hand we have to challenge that the military in many ways doesn't have a lot of regard particularly for the west and international community and so we might see statements and you know potentially affect the sanctions against me in the next few days but the real reality is that that doesn't necessarily have a lot of impact on the military or what it does the military is incredibly powerful it has its own resources and sources being and clearly appears to have been

preparing for this awful absolute while right iow as we were talking to our correspondent in beijing a short while ago they of course can count on china's support well will china be providing any sort of support do you think. look i don't think we know that at this stage i think you know as we have also nourishing that russia did visit me recently and particularly with the military and so i think there is a question as to what role russia is playing but i think that's at the moment still open to speculation ok thank you very much melissa crouch for speaking to us about this ok let's bring you some more international reaction and australia has said it's deeply concerned about the situation in myanmar and has called on the military to respect the rule of law let's listen to the australian reaction. rather disturbing. developments i'm aware of those troubling reports in the foreign

minister has been following them very close you know if you received already issued a statement on these matters on the stand the details of course of a very limited use of communications reportedly cut. and it's still relatively early in may and we've been a longstanding supporter of me in my eyes democratic transition including the election in november and as i mentioned the white house has also issued a statement in the past hour saying the united states opposes any attempt to alter the outcome of recent elections or impede myanmar's democratic transition and will take action against those responsible if the steps are not reverse we're monitoring the situation very closely and stand with the people of burma who have already enjoyed so much in their quest for democracy and peace florence we is another of our correspondent who's extensively reported from myanmar she is monitoring the

situation from kuala lumpur in malaysia so we've heard the reaction from the united nations from australia we're expecting some official reaction from beijing at any i at any moment now to how is this going to be viewed by myanmar's neighbors. well if you're talking about the immediate neighbors of these asian nations i imagine there will be some sort of condemnation but it's not going to be as as as critical as it will be there as well as what we're hearing from the western states the association of southeast asian nations have traditionally made it a point to not criticize its its members always viewing internal matters as something for the country the government of the day it's not really and they feel that it's not really in their place to criticize another country that's the attitude that they've always adopted however with this military coup taking place i do believe we will see some sort of condemnation just not as strong as what we're seeing what we're hearing from western nations the newly elected lower house of

parliament was of course due to convene for the 1st time today in nabi deal but the military was calling for a postponement of the parliament coming together. is there any indication florence right now as to what might happen next with the parliament or 'd you know what the military's plan is going forward. well the military has said on military t.v. that the president not the acting president now is the vice president he is a former general min sway and minutes way has apparently over reportedly handed over power transfer power to the military commander in chief that's general min on hurting which means the military is now effectively in charge of the country and it was reported on state t.v. that there is a state of emergency now in myanmar and it's going to be in place for a year so under those circumstances i would expect that parliament will be suspended for as long as emergency in is in place i think we can do away with with

the pretense that still some form of democracy in myanmar now that this is happening initially when we were just getting reports that the state councilor and son suchi the de facto leader of the country and the high ranking officials had been detained that it could have been something else but now we are there's no there's no more gray area this is a military coup that's happening in the military is back in charge and it has made that very clear so the military back in charge in myanmar if you're just joining us breaking news this monday myanmar where there's been a coup the military in charge us for its way is saying therefore and extensively reported from myanmar for us is following the latest developments we spoke earlier to. a young gone who was telling us that there's been so far little reaction on the streets to this foreign to you expect that they could be any form of you know

protests or dissent after this action today. what we're hearing we've heard from the spokesman of the national league for democracy that's own party urging his supporters to remain calm now but we won't we shouldn't be surprised if there is some sort of protest or some sort of some sort of uprising maybe not uprising but some sort of protest against what's happening now the myanmar people had voted overwhelmingly for the national league for democracy they've had 10 years of nearly 10 years of democratic rule and they have been relatively happy with it this coup is not going to be well received by the general public and i think the military is aware of that and which is why they've taken certain measures we had reports that there weren't soldiers in front of yangon city hall the wire our correspondent there far said that in the early hours of monday morning they were she did not see their presence on the streets but earlier in the day there were reports that there were there were soldiers in yangon

city now the military has also taken the action of detaining activists who might be able to who perhaps they feel might be able to rally and sansui supporters to come out in protest against what's happening and they've also that they've detained them not only that they've also taken the step of cutting or disrupting internet service and phone lines really all these measures i'm place to and i think to prevent protests from taking place right and we've heard and we've seen the reaction from being capable of holding uprisings right as we've seen in the past we have heard we are young from the u.s. the u.s. the state department calling on the military to reverse this action. very unlikely that they would do this right. very very unlikely fairly i mean we've seen from past experience when the military was armed when when i was under military rule for decades you know they were deaf to international

criticism to military leaders it really didn't matter that myanmar was an international pariah as long as they had the backing of certain countries as long as they could still continue to do business it really didn't matter that there was international condemnation that there were sanctions against the country and then the military leaders decided that they wanted to experiment with democracy they wanted to open up and i think part of that reasoning was because they were tired of being a vassal state of china they were tired of being under china's influence so they they flirted with democracy they opened up the country foreign investment started pouring in but what happened then was that the military started losing power when they allowed. free and fair elections were to the extent that anyone could compete in or anyone could stand in those elections they saw their power their influence starting to wane with the national league for democracy winning the election in 2015 in 2020 by such a huge landslide the military could see that even the guarantees that they had

written into the constitution giving them 25 percent of seats in parliament giving them control of very important ministries in cabinet giving them an effective constitutional veto that was not enough to guarantee them staying on in power and they were possibly afraid because also government in that one term that they've been in power they had already tried to effect constitutional change and so the sort of it's possible that the military were thinking well this is really not working out for us and we want to be back in charge it's not enough that we still have a say in government we are not in charge and we want to be back in our florence thank you very much for the moment florence reunite for us there in kuala lumpur there's been more reaction coming in to the events in myanmar and the military coup today the detention of or would she be on mars leader the secretary. general through his spokesman secretary general of the united nations strongly condemning the detention of on son suchi and calling on the military to transfer all legislative executive

and judicial powers rather to calling on the military to reverse this and saying these developments represent a serious blow to democratic reforms in law let's get more reaction international reaction and speak to larry korb who is a former u.s. assistant secretary of defense now a senior fellow at the center for american progress his live from washington thank you very much for being with. a big tests a 1st foreign policy policy test for the biden administration in south asia how how do you think they i mean we've heard condemnation already from the state department what more do you expect from the administration. well i think that they will speak out as they already have that they will also look at economic sanctions that they can put on the on the government there any type of military cooperation that we may have had or were having with me and mark to deal with it to quote out

of this situation and china i mean those are the steps that they'll they'll take. at least in the beginning and then try and negotiate something that lets lawsuit you know out of jail and back into another election the military said they're only going to stay in power for a short period of time i think it's important to hold them to that so that they don't go back to the way it was when it was rule it was a military dictatorship as we heard from one of our earlier guests they spin little international action or sanction on myanmar even with the you know the crimes committed against the ring of people in rakhine state the reaction sometimes has been you today in the international media has been criticized for not doing enough . and for not holding the military to accounting myanmar do you think things might change with the biden administration or are they other areas that they're more

concerned about. no i think that they're going to take a strong stand against this because it's the same thing that they're doing in china where you know what the chinese have done to the way girds and they're also concerned that the whole idea of democracy is being undermined the chinese are basically say we have a better waddle then the united states has and given this horrible thing that we had here on january 6th they can say it's a it's a it's the way to move forward is not a democratic way but the way to put strong people in charge to make sure the country's interest offer texted but as you say i mean this will again put them at loggerheads with china. either the points of tensions with beijing of course when it comes to the u.s. i china relationship is this something that the bind administration would want to try to add on to to

a state well i think so because we recognize that our if you will are dealing with china has got to be not just who is stronger who's academically or militarily but which is the model for the world to follow the democratic model where the people get to make the decisions or to have a lot farther terry and state which you have in china it's not the military it's the it's the party and if you go back to this in the end mark you're basically going to have pretty much the same thing instead of the party you're going to have the military which like the party has been in power in myanmar for a long time on an awful lot of the years so you expect sanctions then from from the biden administration what you know concrete actions you expect as a result of this pulling men in myanmar. well i mean i think the signs obviously

we're not going to send military force in there but i think the sanctions are going to be one step in the direction of sending a signal that we're not going to go back to business as normal unfortunately in some places where our authoritarian governments are called me and around the world president trump actually was happy to see that i think of biden of ministration who's going to take a different. form of dealing with these situations like this i thank you so much for talking to us about this lawrence cold former u.s. assistant secretary of defense joining us say with reaction to the coup in myanmar i said just joining us this is what we've been covering this morning on al-jazeera there's been a military coup in myanmar after the army there detained later on science witchy and other senior politicians from the ruling national do democracy national league

party the n l d and they say this is in response to alleged fraud in the elections in november which returned the national league for democracy to government we spoke to our correspondent in young going and she told us about the situation there. it's. not. hard to sort of carrying on as normal and just outside the city hall to hear nothing but the morning the military possibly finding out people from inside the city will learn or some government officials and police based. world to hearing that tuchman is the universe as well as on time to keep us healthy being detained. some come to give it to you know us to be and it's nice to meet you sometime about to be pumped up so a lot of people will be on the street give you anything any noticeable is the fact that no one got on the phones everyone's talking about it but the network some working and others will not think the feeling quite normal at the moment we'll see

if a military presence makes itself known later or whether there are some other people thought forms of this. or that people will come out on the street. my correspondent in young going there. giving us a view of the situation on the streets of myanmar's largest city today after the military took over and they did this 1st in naypyidaw the capital detaining. the leader of the national league for democracy the d. and other members of the ruling party the military about an hour or so ago issuing a statement saying that a state of emergency is now in place and that it is in control for a year they had been tensions of course between the civilian government and the military which told fears of a coup while we have confirmation of a coup happening in myanmar this monday on the same day that the newly elected

lower house of parliament was due to convene for the 1st time after the elections in november which the n o d one but the military had called for a postponement of the convening of parliament. and speaking to. reports. the streets been quiet but soldiers in some parts of naypyidaw and young gone as well earlier a few hours ago more internet data connections and some phone services were disrupted in major cities but they are now back up as we were able to speak to early fall on course. to our correspondent. the state broadcaster also saying earlier that. technical issues and was international reaction has been international reaction has been coming in from the state department the state department in the united states condemning the actions

of the military in myanmar and also the secretary general of the united nations as well continuing coverage of the events in myanmar here on al-jazeera of course throughout the morning. if you're just joining us it's coming up to almost 4 g.m.t. and 10 30 am in myanmar where the military has seized power and installed a former general as president a state of emergency has been declared it will last for a year and in the run up to this call myanmar's leader on sansa and other senior members of the ruling party were detained in dawn raids and shortly after that internet services were severely disrupted in the commercial capital yangon myanmar spent 10 since november when un stance which is national league for democracy won elections in a landslide victory but the military cast doubt on the results claiming large scale voter fraud victoria gate and b. has still

a test. the military made its move in the early hours of the morning detaining myanmar's democratically elected leader and son suchi and other seal figures from the ruling party su cheese n l d government won november's election by a landslide but accusations of electoral fraud led to tension between the civilian government and the military what my sense is is that. and in the internal military struggles but also they have gone back to their chinese arms and say look this is where we think you're going to chinese government which is not inclined to support him ocracy has said you have that in the political crisis began last tuesday when a military spokesman refused to rule out the possibility of a coup the following day mammals military chief state fears when he said the constitution should be repealed if it was not abided by as tensions reached their peak on saturday the military issued

a new statement saying the commander in chief's comments had been misinterpreted and pledged to protect the constitution.