China cherishes its 'jade kingdom' By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING - Amid a dearth of official news about the turmoil in Myanmar, the
Southern Weekend - one of China's more liberal official newspapers - has chosen
to run a lengthy feature about an ethnic-Chinese entrepreneur striking it rich
in the jade business in that neighboring country.
But the feature was curiously apt. Describing the country as the "jade kingdom
on Earth" where fortune is easily made as long as one is hard-working, the
article in effect perpetuated a centuries-old perception in China of Myanmar as
a country of riches from
which successive Chinese dynasties commanded a tribute.
Tellingly, the article steered around Myanmar's current state of turmoil and
the brutal suppression by the military junta of peaceful demonstrations led by
Buddhist monks.
The event eerily resembles China's own suppression in 1989 of student-led
democracy protests. And it comes at a time when Beijing is preparing to hold
the 17th Congress of its ruling Communist Party and is wary of anything that
could jeopardize the country's fragile social stability.
However much the official Chinese media choose to ignore popular calls for
political change in Myanmar, China's rulers have a long history of involvement
in the Southeast Asian country's fortunes and hold a unique capacity to
influence its future.
Going back 800 years to the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongol rulers of China invaded
Myanmar three times. There were two more invasions by the succeeding Ming
Dynasty. And under the sway of the last imperial dynasty, the Qing, Myanmar
came to be regarded as a vassal state whose kings were regularly sending
tributary missions to Beijing along with gifts of elephants.
This traditional patron-vassal relationship became fiercely ideological under
the reign of China's communist chairman Mao Zedong (1949-76) when Beijing
wanted to establish itself as the leader of a world revolution and take over
the leadership of the communist movement from Moscow.
Under Mao, China financed and trained long-running insurgencies over the whole
of Southeast Asia. In Myanmar (then known as Burma), it supported the now
defunct Burmese Communist Party, which several times came close to winning
power.
Over the years, the Chinese grew to dominate Burma's trade in many commodities,
including rice. Resentment sometimes exploded into anti-Chinese riots. Chinese
shops and warehouses were ransacked and Chinese homes burned down.
Such anti-Chinese riots gave China an excuse to invade Burma in 1968. In an
undeclared war that was little noticed because it took place during the Tet
offensive in Vietnam, Beijing sent 30,000 heavily armed troops who rapidly
occupied swaths of the country and forced the government of General Ne Win to
negotiate.
But the effort to spearhead a communist revolution across the region and the
cost of subsidizing large-scale insurgencies like that in Burma had exhausted
communist China - itself impoverished and starving.
The death of Mao in 1976 signaled the end of an era of ideological crusades and
failed industrial campaigns. China assumed a low profile in international
affairs and concentrated on rebuilding relations and gaining an economic
foothold in the region.
Since 1990, China has been the only big country backing the military junta that
rules Myanmar, supplying it with aid and arms. Observers reckon Beijing has
provided the generals with more than US$2 billion worth of arms and ammunition.
In return, China has received teak and gems, promises of Myanmar's oil and gas
reserves through a planned pipeline and access to a large market for its cheap
consumer goods.
About a million Chinese are said to have migrated to Myanmar, dealing in trade,
constructing dams and laying a road that, when ready, will stretch from the
Chinese border across Myanmar to its shores. Isolated by Western countries,
Myanmar's rulers have become ever more dependent on trade with China. Two-way
trade doubled between 1999 and 2005 to $1.2 billion.
Protecting its investments and business interests, China has also come to play
the role of Myanmar's staunchest supporter at the United Nations. It has
consistently resisted action against Myanmar, insisting that its
behind-the-scenes political negotiations work better with the regime than
imposing sanctions.
While the international community deplored the bloodshed in Yangon and other
cities last week, China blocked calls for a strong statement condemning
Myanmar's repressive actions. Chinese Ambassador to the UN Wang Guangya told
the media afterward that the situation in Myanmar did not "constitute a threat
to international and regional peace", the formal threshold needed for Security
Council action.
Yet despite appearances of inaction on China's part, foreign diplomats in
Beijing believe the country will seek to exert pressure on Myanmar's military
to prevent a repetition of the 1988 massacre, when 3,000 peaceful protesters
were killed by the army.
"The stakes are too high for China," said one Western diplomat. "They have been
criticized for remaining passive in Sudan for far too long and don't want to
have another Darfur crisis unfolding right at their doorstep."
The approach of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics has brought heightened
international scrutiny on China, and its leaders are loath to see the
preparations marred by any association with a massacre in Myanmar, which some
are already calling the "Asian Darfur".
In meetings with Myanmar's leaders last month, Chinese diplomats were unusually
forthright about the possibility of violent suppression of peaceful protests
that were gathering momentum in Yangon and other cities.
"China, as a friendly neighbor of Myanmar, sincerely hopes Myanmar would
restore internal stability as soon as possible, properly handle issues and
actively promote national reconciliation," the Xinhua News Agency quoted State
Councilor Tang Jiaxuan as telling visiting junta leader General Than Shwe.
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