Burma is easy prey for China
source : The Nation
Published on Sep 7, 2001
Nicole Veash , The Observer
The junta’s heavy reliance on Beijing could backfire as favours are called in
RANGOON – Life in Burma isn’t easy. In addition to a military dictatorship, a moribund economy and mass unemployment, now a new threat is eating away at the country. And the growing shadow on Burmese culture comes from a source very close to home: China.
Sandwiched between China to the east and India and Bangladesh to the west, Burma has always been particularly vulnerable to cultural domination. But a combination of geopolitics and capitalism that is sweeping through China is causing an onslaught on the Burmese way of life, not seen since colonial times, when Britain was the country’s selfimposed master.
The creeping cultural invasion began when the ruling governments of both China and Burma cracked down on democracy campaigners in the later years of the 1980s. As international hostility mounted against their authoritarian regimes, the two countries started to form closer ties in the military, economic and political spheres.
For the Burmese junta, resulting sales of military hardware from China have helped to support their regime. The Rangoon government is estimated to have spent some US$2 billion (Bt90 billion) during the 1990s on Chinese equipment, enabling their army to expand from 180,000 men at the start of the decade to the 450,000 it was by 1999. Chinese aid and investment has also gone into Burmese infrastructure and industrial projects.
In return for financial support in a variety of guises, Beijing has been allowed to develop a strategic interest inside its wellplaced neighbour. Vorasakdi Mahatdhanabol, a China expert at Thailand’s prestigious Chulalongkorn University, says that an ability to trade is now the driving force behind much of Beijing’s policy.
The landlocked provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan are economic powerhouses. They are producing masses of cheaply-made, often plastic, goods which are flooding the region,he says. Although these products are already the dominant consumer goods in Burma, China now wants better links with other international markets. One obvious way of doing this is by getting access to the Indian Ocean.
Vorasakdi says that Burma feels obliged to provide China with easy access to its own coastal ports. In return, China has been paying for extensive and much needed roadbuilding projects throughout the country.
The Chinese are talking a lot about trade at the moment,says Vorasakdi,but many countries in the region are suspicious. They think China wants to expand its military might by using Burma as a bouncing off point. Through Burma it can threaten its old rival India and other enemies in the region.
Others agree. Anthony Davis, an old Asia hand and writer on intelligence and defence issues for publications such as Jane’s Intelligence, points to significant demographic changes already taking place inside Burma.
In the northeast of Burma, hundreds of thousands of Chinese are migrating across the border,he says.In the country’s second city of Mandalay, some 30 per cent of the population are now ethnic Chinese. The whole demographic balance of northern Burma is really changing.
Davis observes that this human and cultural influx is not going down at all well with Rangoon’s generals. “The military junta are in a difficult position,he says.They’ve relied on Chinese support to keep their grip on power but now they’re worried about this dependency and are trying to pull back from China’s embrace. But it’s politically hard for them to let go.
Experts suggest millions of Chinaborn migrants will be living inside Burma’s borders within the next five years. And with Chinese penetration into the country continuing in all spheres, economically as well as politically, the assessment of an Asian diplomat, based in Bangkok, could turn out to be true.
Soon,he says,Burma will be nothing more than a Chinese satellite. And when that time comes, we’ve all got to worry.”