In August, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, travelled to Myanmar to urge the country’s army chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, to pursue political reconciliation and hold elections. The junta has said it will stage elections in 2025, but international observers and many Burmese people do not believe that the vote would be free and fair.

During a meeting with Myanmar’s former president, Thein Sein, in China in June, Wang said that merely holding elections was not enough, according to a senior Burmese official who accompanied Thein Sein to China. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to disclose details of the meeting to the news media.

According to the official, Wang also called on the military to hold talks with Aung San Suu Kyi, the civilian leader who was ousted from power. Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year prison term on charges that the international community have said are trumped up.

“The reason they made this announcement is to appease China,” Ye Myo Hein, a visiting senior expert for the Myanmar program at the United States Institute of Peace, said in a Facebook post.

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Opposition leaders shared that scepticism. “The question that needs to be asked is, who exactly failed to resolve the political issues through political means?” said Nay Phone Lat, the spokesperson for the National Unity Government, the pro-democracy government that operates in exile.

“Stop repeatedly showing us the same old worn-out record,” said Padoh Saw Taw Nee, the spokesperson for the Karen National Union, one of the dominant rebel groups, said by telephone. “It’s a waste of time.”

He called on the military to step away from politics, to accept the drafting of a new Constitution to establish a federal union and to be accountable for all war crimes committed.

Soe Thu Ya Zaw, commander of the Mandalay People’s Defence Forces, wrote in a Facebook post that he thought the offer was deceptive. “It’s like hanging a goat’s head but selling dog meat.”

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Many reserved their vitriol for Min Aung Hlaing. “There’s no point in talking about peace with someone like Hitler,” said Ko Saung Kha, commander of the Bamar People’s Liberation Army.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.