Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s recent visit to China has shown again that Burma is China’s satellite state.
The aging dictator called China his country's “most important friendly neighbor” and promised to continue to develop its strategic relations with Beijing after the election.
The senior general was quite right to highlight China's key role in supporting the regime that came to power in 1988.
Shortly after the military crushed Burma's pro-democracy movement 22 years ago, China was one of the first neighboring countries to back the newly installed junta, providing it with arms, jet fighters, naval ships and ammunition. Since then, its unswerving support of the regime in Burma has only grown.
During the visit, Chen Bingde, chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army, called for developing stable bilateral ties and military cooperation between the nations after he had a meeting with Thura Shwe Mann, the regime’s number three man.
In return, Burma has offered strategic access to the Bay of Bengal. Underlining this deepening strategic cooperation, Chinese naval ships recently made a port call for the first time to Burma.
Interestingly, the Burmese regime's recent secret military missions to North Korea have all been made via China. It can safely be said that Beijing approves of and backs Burma’s desire to develop military contacts with North Korea. Overall, it looks like China's role as a big brother to the junta will continue, and we can foresee China and Burma developing deeper military ties.
Before Than Shwe’s visit to China, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited Burma, making the first trip by a Chinese leader since 2001. Wen signed 15 agreements on cooperation in a number of areas, including a natural gas pipeline, hydropower stations and development assistance.
Today, China is Burma’s third-largest trading partner and investor after Thailand and Singapore. According to Xinhua, in 2009, bilateral trade totaled US $2.9 billion. By January 2010, China's investment in Burma amounted to $1.8 billion, accounting for 11.5 percent of the country’s then total foreign investment.
By May this year, China made huge investments in hydropower, oil and gas, totaling $8.17 billion, Xinhua reported, quoting the regime’s statistics. Burma is an important neighbor, as China is making sure to secure energy supplies from Burma and elsewhere.
Gas pipelines carrying natural gas and oil are being built from the port of Kyaukpyu on Burma's western coastline and will entering China at Ruili, a border city in Yunnan Province.
China is also an important ally for the regime to fend off the international community and Western governments, which have long criticized the junta’s appalling human rights records and are now backing the establishment of a UN Commission of Inquiry into crime against humanity in Burma. China usually protects the regime and asks Western critics to back off. At the UN Security Council, China will readily come and rescue the regime whenever it faces crucial censure or resolution.
Now China is doing its utmost to lend legitimacy to this year's election, which has already been widely denounced as a sham. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news conference this week that the coming election in Burma is an internal affair and told critics not to meddle in the country's affairs.
“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 peace and stability,” she said.
Chinese leaders know that Than Shwe's clan will continue to rule the country after the election. During his trip, Than Shwe brought his most trusted people, including Thura Shwe Mann, who is tipped to become president, to meet China's top leaders. This trip may be Than Shwe’s last as Burma's ruler, but his people will continue to foster closer ties with China.
Thus the Chinese, as the regime's strongest ally, are the first to meet Than Shwe’s future successor. It is likely that China will back the poll result in Burma and welcome the incoming government—even if it is just a snake shedding its own skin or Than Shwe himself who appoints the new president.
Sadly, it won’t matter to China how many innocent activists are locked up in Burma's prisons or how many civilian and ethnic minorities are being murdered by Chinese-made weapons—as long as the regime is stable and China’s national interests are untouched, Beijing is happy to back the repressive junta in Burma.
Thus, understandably, Than Shwe needs to make sure Burma continues to forge deeper and closer military, diplomatic and strategic relations with its giant neighbor.
Unlike China, however, the people of Burma do not support the regime.
It is thus highly ironic that Chinese leaders are lecturing the rest of the world about the need to stay out of Burma's business, when most Burmese feel that China has interfered in Burma's internal affairs more than any other country.
It's time to tell China to back off and stop meddling in Burma.
Source:http://www.irrawaddy.org/opinion_story.php?art_id=19439
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