Myanmar General visits China to cement ties

Myanmar General visits China to cement ties


The isolation and condemnation experienced by both countries in the wake of the Yangon massacre of 1988 and the violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests the following year helped to draw them closer tighter. But china’s calculation was also strategic. Close to the key shipping lanes, of the Indian Ocean and South East Asia. Myanmar could help China to extend its military reach into a region of vital importance to Asian economies . By late 1991, Chinese experts were helping to upgrade Myanmar’s infrastructure, including its badly maintained road san railways. Chinese military advisers also arrived that year, the first foreign military personnel to be stationed in Myanmar since the 1950s. One of China’s motives for arming Myanmar was to help safeguard the new trade routes through its potentially volatile neighbour. Intelligence sources estimate the total value of Chinese arms deliveries to Myanmar in the 1990S at 1.2$ billion with most of them acquired at a discount or through barter deals or interest-free loans. India has been particularly concerned by Chinese support for upgrading of Myanmar’s naval facilities. These include at least four electronic listening posts along the Bay of Bengal and in the Andaman Sea. In May 1998, the outspoken Indian defense minister , George Fernandes, caused uproar by accusing Beijing of helping Myanmar to install surveillance and communications equipment on the Coco Islands. Myanmar and China denied the accusations.

While Myanmar remains shunned by the West, the country’s two giant neighbors, India and China , are jockeying for influence in Yangon. Since the beginning of the year, India’s army chief General Ved Prakash Malik has made two trips to Myanmar and his Burmese counterpart General Maugn Aye has visited both India and China. These top-level exchanges have highlighted Myanmar’s importance in the strategic competition between Beijing and New Delhi. China enjoys considerable head start in the race to woo Yangoon’s military leaders,. Myanmar’s opposite movement towards cementing ties with the junta. New Delhi has offered Myanmar favourble trade relations and cooperation against ethic insurgents along the Indo-Myanmarese frontiers. India also appears to be expelling a rift between Maugn Aye and the head of Myanmar’s powerful military intelligence service.

Myanmar emerged as a key Chinese ally on 6 August 1988, when the two countries signed an agreement establishing official trade across the common border hitherto-isolated Myanmar’s first such agreement with a neighbor. Significantly, the signing took place while Myanmar was in turmoil. Two days later, million of people across the country took to the streets to demand an end to army rule and a restoration of the democracy the country enjoyed prior to the first military coup in 1962. China was eager to find a trading outlet to the Indian Ocean for its landlocked inland provinces of Ynuna and Sichuan via Myanmar. The Myanmar’s rail-heads of Myktyyia an Lashio in north –eastern Myanmar, as well as the Irrawaddy River, were potential conduits. The visit comes at a time when the military junta in Yangoon is finalizing the process of holding the general elections on November 7. The registration of political parties, a crucial issue that will determine whether the elections are free and fair, is going on at preset. The presence of a powerful Navy on Myanmar shores is likely to bolster the confidence of the ruling junta.

Than Shwe is expected to seek China’s support for plans to hold nationwide elections in early November. The country ‘s junta portrayed as key step in shifting to civilian rule after five decades of military domination. Critics have called the elections a sham and say the military shows little sign of relinquishing control. The countries have generally enjoyed strong relations in recent years, though there was some friction when factional fighting sent tens of thousands of Burmese refugees across the Chinese border last summer.
“ We hope the international community can provide constructive help to the upcoming election and refrain from making any negative impact on the domestic political process and the regional peae and stability.

Than Shwe’s visit comes three-monthw after Wen went to Myanmar, the firt trip by a Chinese leader since 2001. Wen signed 15 agreements on co-operation in areas, including a natural gas pipeline, hydropower station and development assistance. China is Myanmar’s third largest trading partner and investor after Thailand and Singapore. In 2009 bilateral trade totaled $2.9billion. by January 2010, China’s investment in Myanmar amounted d $1.8 billion accounting for 11.5 percent of Myanmar’s then total foreign investment . But this May China made huge investments in hydropower , oil and gas totaling 8.17billin.

Hailing the stable grow of bilateral ties between the two nations and the two militaries, , Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Chen Bingde said the fruitful cooperation in various areas had brought concrete benefits for both sides. He hoped the two militaries would work together to carry forward the traditional friendship. Thura U Shwe Mann applauded China’s unselfish help for Myanmar in its economic and defense construction saying that Myanmar would work with China to boost pragmatic cooperation between the two militaries and the two countries.

Burma was the first non-communist country to recognize the Communist-led People’s Republic of China after its foundation in 1949. Burma and the People’s Republic of China formally established diplomatic relations on June 8, 1950. China and Burma signed a treaty of friendship and mutual non-aggression and promulgated a Joint Declaration on June 29, 1954, officially basing their relations on the Five- Principles of Peaceful Co-existence. However, Burma maintained a neutralist foreign policy in the 1950s and 1960s. Anti-Chinese riots in 1967 and the expulsion of Chinese communities from Burma generated hostility in both countries. Relations began to improve significantly in the 1970s. Under the rule of Deng Xiaoping, China reduced support for the CPB and on August 5, 1988 China signed a major trade agreement, legalizing cross-border trading and began supplying considerably military aid. Following the violent repression of pro-democracy protests in 1988, the newly –formed State Peace and Development Council , facing growing international condemnation and pressure, sought to cultivate a strong relationship with China to bolster itself, in turn China’s influence grew rapidly after the international community abandoned Burma..


Since 1989, China has supplied Burma with jet fighters, armoured vehicles and naval vessels and has trained Burmese army, air force and naval personnel. Access to Burma’s ports and naval installations provide China the strategic influence in the Bay of Bengal , in the wider Indian Ocean region and in Southeast Asia. China has developed a deep-water port on Kyaukpyu in the Bay of Bengal. It has also built an 85 meter jetty , naval facilities and major reconnaissance and electronic intelligence systems on the Great Coco Island.

The People’s Republic of China had poor relations with Burma until the late 1980s. Between 1967and 1970, Burma broke relations with Beijing because of the lattes support for the Community Party of Burma. Beng Xiaoping visited Yangon in 1978 and withdrew support for the long running insurgency of the Communist Party of Burma. However, the early 1950S Burma enjoyed a hot-and-cold relationship with China. Burma’s U Thant and U Nu lobbied for China’s entry as permanent member into the Security Council, but denounced the invasion of Tibet.China an Burma had many border disputes., long before British annexation of Burma. The last border dispute culminated in 1956 when the People’s Liberation Army invaded northern Burm, but were repulsed. A border agreement was reached in 1960.However, after 1986, China withdrew support for the CPB and began supplying the military junta with the majority of its arms in exchange for increased access to Burmese markets and a rumored navy base on Coco Island in the Andaman Sea.


Md. Masum Billah
Program Manager: BRAC Education Program, PACE
Cell: 01714-091431, home: 9355253
Email: mmbillah2000@yahoo.com