Between Continuity and Adjustment: The PRC’s Diplomatic Discourse on Myanmar (2011-24)

Myanmar’s political transformation since 2011 has unfolded through democratisation, armed conflict and military rule, presenting the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with tensions between strategic continuity, border security and evolving normative pressures. Drawing on Myanmar-related texts from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 2011 and 2024, BERTopic modelling and diplomatic discourse analysis reveal how the PRC represented Myanmar across successive political phases. Four enduring thematic domains emerge – political engagement, security governance, regional cooperation and public diplomacy – whose relative salience shifts while the overall discursive structure remains stable. This coexistence of continuity and adjustment is sustained through governance-oriented meaning construction, the reproduction of a composite diplomatic identity and normative substitution, that reframes contentious political questions in terms of sovereignty, stability and procedural legitimacy, thereby making the stated principle of non-intervention discursively compatible with Beijing’s continued involvement. The ambiguity of the PRC’s position reflects a structurally reproduced discursive outcome rather than a simple policy dilemma.