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Strategies & Market Trends : True face of China -- A Modern Kaleidoscope -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: RealMuLan who wrote (2228)10/7/2007 7:10:09 PM
From: RealMuLan  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 12464
 
Don't blame China for Myanmar

Neither China nor any other nation has much sway over the ruling junta.
By Kerry Howley
October 6, 2007

latimes.com

"China is not Myanmar's biggest trading partner; Thailand is. "You keep seeing these references to Chinese oil and gas assets in Burma," Overholt said. "The reality is that they're trivial. China's attitude toward Burmese gas is that the Thais have already signed up for most of it and the Indians want the rest." China is building an oil and gas pipeline -- but the gas it will carry will flow to the Middle East. This is weak stuff to hang a boycott on; Overholt calls the idea "nutty."

So why all the focus on Beijing? The West has been repeatedly frustrated in its attempts to influence a small group of secretive generals; a decade of sanctions has not brought Myanmar closer to democracy. It may be that leaning on China -- a country we expect to respond rationally to incentives -- channels the need to "do something" in the same way embassy protests, candlelight vigils and online petitions do. It may also be that China is a locus of negativity already, ripe for scapegoating. Western companies with valuable oil holdings in Myanmar have attracted less attention than has China."