The United States has decided to place Myanmar on its global list of worst offenders in human trafficking, officials said, a move aimed at prodding the country's new democratically elected government and its still-powerful military to do more to curb the use of child soldiers and forced labor.
The reprimand of Myanmar comes despite U.S. efforts to court the strategically important country to help counteract China's rise in the region and build a Southeast Asian bulwark against Beijing's territorial assertiveness in the South China Sea.
Myanmar's demotion, part of the State Department's closely watched annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report due to be released Thursday, also appears intended to send a message of U.S. concern about continued widespread persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority in the Buddhist-majority nation.