| China’s Burma Shame |
| Written by A. Lin Neumann | |
| Thursday, 27 September 2007 | |
|
By not ‘interfering’
with Rangoon’s murderous generals, Beijing props up a despised
regime
Photo courtesy of BurmaNet News
Indeed, the model has been good for the region, in some ways. Badly needed capital has been mobilized in places like Cambodia and Laos. Far from destroying Asian economies, as some had feared, the remarkable growth of China has increased opportunities for intra-regional trade, while allowing China to expand its influence aggressively into countries like the Philippines that were once the preserve of the United States.
But there are limits to what pure economic muscle can do, and China may have reached that point in Burma this week. When a close ally beats and shoots unarmed monks who are asking for nothing more than to have a voice in the affairs of their country, the hollowness of the Chinese diplomatic model is on plain view.
There is more to being a responsible partner on the world stage than handing out bags of money. China knows this, as it has demonstrated in the ongoing six-party talks to deal with North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Beijing has played a leading role in keeping the talks going, cajoling North Korea to be reasonable and working closely with its partners — the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and the United States — to keep the process engaged and to help Washington back away from its unproductive “axis of evil” stance.
On Burma, however, Beijing has been shameful. It has supported the murderous generals who seized power in a hail of bullets with vital amounts of aid and investment in return for access to natural resources, becoming the country’s largest trading partner and undermining efforts by the EU and the West to isolate and force the regime to change. It continues to deflect UN Security Council action and it has failed to engage the junta constructively, preferring to follow the dictates of greed in the name of the Communist Party’s principle of “non-interference” in the domestic affairs of its neighbors.
In the current situation, of course, non-interference is simply a lie. By investing billions in Burma (two-way trade with Burma amounted to $1.11 billion in 2006, according to Chinese government figures cited by the International Herald Tribune. Trade for the first seven months of this year has risen by 39.4 percent over a year earlier) and delivering at least US$1.4 billion in weapons sales over the past several years, China has strategically intervened on the side of an illegitimate regime despised by its own people.
Far from an example of the cuddly “soft power” China wishes to display to its neighbors, in Burma the cold calculus of Beijing’s foreign policy is clear. It wants access to Burma’s land and resources and it does not care what happens to Burma’s own people.
The reality, of course, is that for all its growth and economic dynamism, China’s hermetically sealed leaders are far closer in style and temperament to the junta’s generals than they are to politicians and leaders in democratic countries who have to contend with the messiness of a free press, elections, public debate and the rule of law. Hu Jintao and Co, like the generals who run Burma, are used to laying down the law.
But China faces a serious dilemma in Burma. As a power that wants to be taken seriously on the world stage, China can ill afford to sacrifice its good standing for a bunch of backward, corrupt and immoral thugs. This is why we are told that the politburo in Beijing is deeply troubled by the unrest in Rangoon and may be cautioning the regime to take it easy before opening fire on the monks. This is not out of any compassion for the monks, but out of the cold reality that Beijing knows that a bloodbath in Burma — like the Tiananmen massacre that followed the last crackdown in Rangoon by a year — would reflect badly on China a year ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
But with an estimated 86,000 spontaneous riots and demonstrations in China last year over a variety of grievances, Beijing also knows how difficult it is to keep the lid on its own people. With the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China due in about two weeks, analysts say the timing of a Burma crisis could not be worse. If they act to undermine the generals on their southern border, Beijing’s leaders fear that unrest could spread by example into China. If Beijing does nothing, and things go terribly wrong, the world will hold it responsible for the actions of its client state.
The Burma uprising could be a coming of age test for China. As other major powers have gradually discovered, pariah states make unreliable long-term allies. On a visit to Mandalay a few years ago, I marveled at the many Chinese-style commercial buildings going up in a city fast becoming an economic satellite of southern China. The Burmese I was with were openly resentful. “We have no say in this,” I was told. “The Chinese can do whatever they want because they are friends with the army. But when the generals are gone, we will make the Chinese pay.”
The day when China has to pay for its Burma policy could be drawing near. Comments
(7)
 written by guest , October 06, 2007
It is indeed a sad state of affair persisting in Burma, a kind
Votes: +0
of internal terrorism destroying the peace and spraying violence. I hope that USA should take a step to destroy the murderous Government and restore peace. Neither China (who are indeed opportunist in characters and proven with their policy) nor India (who believes in peace but not dare to take risk) could help the innocent Burmese in the present situation. report abuse
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 written by a guest , October 02, 2007
Cutting off the resources for the junta regime by dealing with the sponsor nations like China, other companies etc., will only worsen the situation for the people in Burma, because the generals will only start ravaging & looting the people like Kim Jong Il does in N. Korea. They already have the guns and weapons to do it, so why not use them?
Votes: +0
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 written by Free Burma! , September 30, 2007
International bloggers are preparing an action to support the peaceful revolution in Burma. We want to set a sign for freedom and show our sympathy for these people who are fighting their cruel regime without weapons. These Bloggers are planning to refrain from posting to their blogs on October 4 and just put up one Banner then, underlined with the words „Free Burma!“.
Votes: +0
www.free-burma.org report abuse
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Stop buying everything "made in China", that money only goes towards the PLA and to the CCP, who use some of it to prop up the MyanMar thugs (and NK, Zimbabwe, Sudan, etc.).
Votes: +0
And urge your national leaders to boycott the "Genocide Olympics" in Beijing. Darfur was bad enough, now we have this and countries still plan on sending their athletes? The USSR couldn't get away with half this many bad activities and not receive open, heated world condemnation. report abuse
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 written by bookbagwarrior , September 28, 2007
CrisisWhile it is great to report on atrocities going on in Burma today, it is also past time to think about solutions that can actually work. The world can no longer count on "sanctions" called for by IGOs like the UN and ASEAN...or countries like the US or UK alone. The real pressure must be applied on the "money regimes" that continue to prop up the junta. Boycott of products and calls for sell off of stocks in "companies" who do business with the junta will put the fear of the "almighty $$$$" in the right parties, alter behavior, and persuade the generals as to the best course of action...guaranteed..
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It is recorded in history that some nations block UNSC majority decision to tackle Burma/MyanMar problem by veto power or non veto power. The people of Burma/MyanMar can see and learn what these nations did to them. These nations sided with the illegal regime and discard the dignity of the people of Burma/MyanMar. Their behavior and their votes in UNSC are recorded and proven which side they are.
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|
In recent years, much
has been made of China’s growing “soft power” in
Asia. With the United States distracted by a failed presidency and a
disaster of its own making in Iraq, the field has been open to China
to assert itself as a friend to developing countries, and an economic
partner who will not ask too many questions before dispensing vast
reserves of cash for infrastructure projects in return for access to
markets and resources.
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Just don't expect all the rest of the world are fools who cannot read through the West's evil schemmes:there is no real struggle for the so-called democracy in Myanmar ( the arrogant West still prefers their nostalgic colonial Burma name), it is actually an attempt at geopolitical regime change through another colour revolution to unseat yet another anti Western regime not withstanding the fact that it may have ruled terribly or that it may indeed be a brutal regime per se.
To the enlightened Chinese, if Myanmar were to fall to the pro Western Suu Khi regime, this can tantamount to tightening of the noose around the neck of China in trying to starve her off vital sea lanes, let alone denying of access to vital natural resourses, thus threatening the very survival of China & her economical properity. Those days of the Ching Dynasty Chinese, who were ill-cultured, ignorant, ill-informed & stupid are gone & burried forever. The idiotic West who expect us not to have read through your schemmes & intrigues are doing so at your peril. Yes, we are fully aware of some of the extreme downsides of the military regime in Myanmar. But to expect us to help the West to throw out this regime while digging our own grave to enhance the strategic interests of the evil West is just a step too far. To the sufferring true patriots of the great Myanmarese people-believe me, we truly sympathise with you & would really like to help you but it is your own fault to have made such a serious mistake in allowing the West to hijack your cause. Change will come, certainly. But it will just not come the way the evil West would have wished for. For those who are the stooges of the West, let me give you a piece of advice:remember, Myanmar is not just your country. It happens to be our stategic neighbour as well. There is absolutely no chance we would allow a hostile state to exist close to our under belly!