Myanmar’s state counsellor, foreign minister and de factor leader Aung San Suu Kyi is in China this week, her first visit since her party was swept to power in November elections.
Observers are making much out of the fact that her visit to a major capital is to Beijing as opposed to Washington, DC, an attempt that could be seen as making nice with China after several years of increasingly warm relations with the US.
That makes sense. Or as more astute analyst might point out, it could just be a much shorter flight.
In any case, the context and history surrounding the Sino-Myanmar relationship is complicated.
Here are a few suggested reading recommendations to take in as the trip unfolds.
The New York Times
There are two articles in the Times this week about the visit, and both are worth reading but for different reasons. First up is an analysis about mending relations, much of which centers on whether or not Myanmar will restart the $3.6 billion China-backed Myitsone Dam in Kachin State on the border. The project was suspended in 2011. China knows what’s at stake here and is acting accordingly.
“China’s red-carpet welcome contrasts with how Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi was treated when she was Myanmar’s opposition leader. Last year, she was 20 minutes late for a meeting with President Xi Jinping, who reportedly told her that she was the first person ever to have kept him waiting so long,” reporters Jane Perlez and Wai Moe note.
“Now, China is making amends for that reprimand as it pushes to install itself as the foremost power in Myanmar. It is tailoring investment projects to suit the impoverished country and assuming an influential position as mediator in peace talks between rival ethnic groups and the government this month.”
Read the full article here.
Next up is an op-ed by the executive director on Fortify Rights, Matthew Smith, who explains in detail the way China’s actions have influenced ongoing conflict in Myanmar’s ethnic states.
“Far from its oft-touted policy of noninterference, Beijing’s business interests in northern Myanmar, particularly in Kachin-dominant areas, have directly contributed to war and a cascade of abuse,” Smith writes. “The Myanmar Army and its businesses have been all too willing to cooperate.”
Read the rest of the op-ed here.
Foreign Policy
This is an oldie but goodie. Writing in January of this year in Foreign Policy, Yangon Heritage Trust chairman and author Thant Myint-U puts the case forward for Myanmar to reset its relationship with China, arguing that “the rise of China is reshaping the world, and nowhere else will its impact be felt more strongly than in neighboring Burma [the magazine still uses the pre-1989 name].”
Thant Myint-U goes over the history of the relationship in more detail than most.
“Burma’s rulers have also sometimes viewed China as a possible menace. In the late 1960s, communist insurgents armed by China crossed the border and established a “liberated zone” in Burma’s northeast. In 1989, the insurgency collapsed — but China’s links with various ethnic militias remain, most notably with the 25,000-strong United Wa State Army.”
Read Thant Myint-U’s full analysis here.
The Irrawaddy
Last but certainly not least, the local news magazine the Irrawaddy has a long interview with Myanmar expert and journalist Bertil Lintner, who is blunt on China’s role in bringing longstanding conflicts to an end.
“It is important to remember that China, not some Western, self-appointed peacemakers and interlocutors, is the most important foreign player in the peace process,” he says.
He also stresses how important it is for Myanmar to make nice with China, which shares a border with the country. The US, obviously, does not.
“It remains to be seen how she [Suu Kyi], as Burma’s foreign minister, is going to balance relations with China and Japan and the West. But one has to remember that China is an immediate neighbor with vital strategic interests in Burma,” he says. “The US, and even Japan, are far away. It would be impossible for any government in Burma to ignore the importance of China.”
