"Beijing has asserted strong influence on the direction and terms of Aung San Suu Kyi?s drive to achieve reconciliation in the war-plagued nation...The second in a planned series of meetings between the Myanmar military, the government and various ethnic armed groups aimed at establishing peace in the country?s decades-long civil war was concluded last week in the capital Naypyitaw. The clear winner of the event?s deliberations: China. Myanmar authorities insisted before the meeting that talks would not he held with three of the seven ethnic armed groups active in the country?s conflict-ridden north because they had taken up arms after the peace process began. The groups that were invited to the conference were told they must sign a detailed accord, known as the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), before any major political talks are held. Yet China flew representatives from all seven northern armed groups, none of which have signed the NCA, in a chartered plane that departed from the nearby Chinese city of Kunming and landed in Naypyitaw. The move effectively presented Myanmar?s civil and military authorities with a fait accompli to include the ethnic armies that Beijing tacitly backs in the peace process..."