PATRICK BOEHLER , The Irrawaddy, January 6, 2012
China is not opposed to the tentative democratic reforms in neighboring Burma and has no worries about its economic interests in the country being affected by possible Western investments poised to enter the Burmese economy along with these changes, according to an editorial in a state-run newspaper.
“It is worth noting that some Westerners use the changes happening in Burma to play up the China factor, even stating that China was against those changes,” said an editorial in the Chinese government mouthpiece People's Daily published on Thursday.
The idea that China opposes reforms in Burma is “nonsense,” the editorial said, stating that China “doesn't need any special circumstances” to compete successfully against Western companies.
“In the eyes of some Western media, China is using opportunities created by the Western sanctions to invest heavily in Burma, and is worried about being crowded out once the [investment] climate has improved,” it added.
The editorial was a direct reaction to arguments by Western advocates of greater engagement with the Burmese government that US-led Western economic sanctions against Burma have resulted in China gaining enormous influence in the country.
Now that Burma's quasi-civilian government has made tentative political and economic reforms, the Western governments have signaled that they want greater engagement with Burma and are ready to lift economic sanctions once they see more substantive democratic changes in the country.
This will pave the way for the Western companies to invest in resource-rich Burma, whose leaders increasingly show signs of attempting to counterbalance their political and economic dependence on China by improving relations with the West.
If this scenario plays out, the Chinese companies don't need to worry about an influx of Western investment because they are “capable of competing under equal conditions with companies from any nation,” according to the editorial.
China “welcomes the increasing contact between Burma and Western countries, including the United States,” and “sees the direction the Burmese government is pushing domestic politics and its improvement of foreign relations as positive," it goes on to say.
China “has no selfish interests in the Burma issue,” the editorial concluded.
According to Cheng Xiaohe, an associate professor in international relations at Renmin University in Beijing, the article “seeks to send a message that the democratic reform in Burma has become unavoidable and China could live with it and may help to facilitate the democratic process.”
But, he warned, “Some Chinese still see the coming of Western companies to Burma from a zero-sum-game perspective.”
For Zha Daojiong, an energy specialist at Peking University in Beijing, the timing of the publication was related to the British Foreign Secretary William Hague’s trip to Burma. His visit, which concluded on Friday, was the first by a British foreign secretary in half a century.
But for the leading analyst, the focus of Sino-Burmese relations is the security of border areas.
“Maintaining peace and stability at the shared border areas is more important than anything else,” Zha told The Irrawaddy on Friday.
“After the Myitsone dam flap, another shooting incident across the border with Yunnan by Burmese troops will increase calls in Chinese society for getting tough with the Burmese government,” he added, referring to the surprise suspension of a Chinese-backed dam project in northern Burma's Kachin State last September.
The editorial came a day after Luo Zhaohui, the head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Department of Asian Affairs, joined a rare online debate on the People’s Daily website.
He said the Burmese government's sudden decision to halt the US $3.6 billion Myitsone project “set off alarm bells” for Chinese diplomats.
China, he said, “will increase its political support and diplomatic protection for [Chinese] companies, provide timely guidance to companies and strengthen consular protection to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of [Chinese] companies.”
When Forbes China published its first global investment risk list for Chinese companies last week, it ranked Burma 162nd out of 177 countries, behind North Korea, Cote d'Ivoire and Pakistan.
The editorial and Luo’s statement come at the end of a year of great changes in Burma, and great changes in Burma’s relationship with China.
The construction of the Myitsone dam on the Irrawaddy River by a Chinese company was suspended after concerns about its social and environmental impact resulted in a growing popular movement opposed to the project.
Despite friction around the Myitsone controversy, however, government relations continue to be close.
Days before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made her historic visit to Burma at the beginning of December, Burma's army chief Gen Min Aung Hlaing visited China, meeting with Vice President Xi Jinping and his Chinese counterparts.
Xi, who has been groomed to become the next chairman of the Chinese Communist Party later this year, visited Burma later in December.
His visit coincided with the Greater Mekong Sub-Region summit hosted by Burma in Naypyidaw. Chinese elder statesman Dai Bingguo attended the summit, a regional alternative to the US-led Lower Mekong Initiative, which excludes China.
China has for decades been a staunch ally of the Burmese military government and has reaped great economic benefits from that loyalty with its internationally isolated neighbor.
Chinese companies have pledged more than $12.3 billion in investments in the fiscal year of 2010, more than any other country, according to Chinese figures.
Chinese investments in Burma have traditionally focused on mining and the energy sector, including electricity generation, oil and gas production and the construction of major oil and natural gas pipelines from the western Burmese seaport of Kyaukpyu to China's Yunnan Province.
The pipelines are expected be completed in 2013 and will carry 22 million tons of crude oil and 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year from the Bay of Bengal to China's energy-hungry Southwestern regions, including Chongqing.
Last week, a new road and railway bridge crossing the Irrawaddy was officially opened by Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo in Pakokku. It had been built by a consortium of three Chinese companies.
According to Chinese figures, bilateral trade reached $4.4 billion in 2010, a increase of 53.2 percent compared to the previous year.
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