Min Aung Hlaing

Min Aung Hlaing (မင်းအောင်လှိုင်; ; born 3 July 1956) is a Burmese army general who has ruled Myanmar as the chairman of the State Administration Council since seizing power in the February 2021 coup d'état.

He additionally appointed himself Prime Minister in August 2021.

Min Aung Hlaing was born on 3 July 1956 in Minbu, Magway Region, Burma to Khin Hlaing and Hla Mu, as the fourth of five children.

His parents were teachers from Dawei, in Tanintharyi Region.

His family moved to Mandalay as duty when he was 5 years.

His father, Khin Hlaing, was an artist.

Min Aung Hlaing passed his matriculation exam in 1972 at BEHS 1 Latha of Rangoon (now Yangon).

He attended and studied law at the Rangoon Arts and Science University from 1973 to 1974.

On his third attempt, he was admitted to the Defence Services Academy in 1974 as part of the 19th Intake, and he graduated in 1977.

According to classmates, Min Aung Hlaing was taciturn, and an unremarkable cadet.

He was reportedly shunned by classmates because of his reserved personality.

Following graduation, Min Aung Hlaing went on to serve in different command positions, rising slowly through the ranks.

Early in his career, military colleagues gave him a nickname referring to cat feces, "something deposited quietly but leaving a powerful stink."

As he rose through the ranks, Min Aung Hlaing earned a reputation as a hardliner.

His military work earned him the favour of Senior General Than Shwe.

Min Aung Hlaing is characterized as having a "big man" management style not conducive to collaboration or listening.

In 2002, he was promoted to commander of the Triangle Regional Command in Eastern Shan State and was a central figure in negotiations with two rebel groups, the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA).

Min Aung Hlaing was reportedly close with former Thai prime minister and General Prem Tinsulanonda, considering Prem a father figure.

Min Aung Hlaing supported the military crackdown of the Saffron Revolution in 2008.

He rose to prominence in 2009 after leading an offensive against the insurgent Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army in Kokang.

Before assuming leadership over the Tatmadaw, Min Aung Hlaing served as Joint Chief of Staff from 2010 to 2011.

Born in Minbu, Burma, Min Aung Hlaing studied law at the Rangoon Arts and Science University before joining the military.

In June 2010, Min Aung Hlaing replaced General Shwe Mann as Joint Chief of Staff of the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

The ruling junta, the State Peace and Development Council, engineered its formal departure from power, after holding the 2010 Myanmar general election, which was won by the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the military's proxy party.

He has led the Tatmadaw (armed forces), an independent branch of government, as the commander-in-chief of Defence Services since March 2011, when he was handpicked to succeed longtime military ruler Than Shwe, who transferred leadership over the country to a civilian government upon retiring.

During the period of civilian rule from 2011 to 2021, Min Aung Hlaing worked to ensure the military's continued role in politics and forestalled the peace process with ethnic armed groups.

A United Nations fact-finding mission found he deliberately perpetrated the Rohingya genocide.

He maintained an adversarial relationship with democratically-elected State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, though she defended him against genocide charges.

In the lead-up to 2011, the military began embarking on a series of political reforms to transition Myanmar to a quasi-democracy.

Rising through its ranks, he became a five-star general by 2013.

Min Aung Hlaing baselessly claimed widespread voting irregularities and electoral fraud in the 2020 Myanmar general election, in which Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide re-election.

He then seized power from her in the 2021 coup.

He had been expected to run for president of Myanmar had the military proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, won enough seats in parliament to elect him, and would have been required to retire as Commander-in-Chief due to a statutory age limit.

With the outbreak of mass protests against his rule, Min Aung Hlaing ordered a clampdown and suppression of demonstrations, sparking an ongoing civil war.

Min Aung Hlaing's forces have employed scorched earth tactics in the civil war, including airstrikes on civilians.

He has ordered the execution of prominent democracy activists, the first use of the death penalty in decades.

In February 2024, he activated Myanmar's conscription law to draft 60,000 young people into the Tatmadaw.

In foreign policy, he has resisted influence from ASEAN and relied on greater cooperation with Russia, China, and India.

In response to his human rights abuses and corruption, Min Aung Hlaing and his government have been subjected to an extensive series of international sanctions, returning Myanmar to its former status as a pariah state.

The 2022 Democracy Index rated Myanmar under Min Aung Hlaing as the second-most authoritarian regime in the world, with only Afghanistan rated less democratic.