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The World Ahead | Asia in 2025

Could Myanmar’s junta fall in 2025?

Its army has never been hit this hard

A soldier of the People's Defence Forces stands guard in Myanmar
Rebel yellPhotograph: Reuters
|SINGAPORE

By Aaron Connelly, Asia diplomatic editor, The Economist

JUST a year after Myanmar declared its independence from Britain in 1948, the new government’s authority extended no farther than the suburbs of Rangoon (now Yangon). Though beset by insurgencies and defections, the army fought its way out of the capital to conquer most of the country. For 75 years, no other institution has had its reach or resilience.

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This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition of The World Ahead 2025 under the headline “Echoes of 1949”

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