Myanmar Solves Malacca Dilemma
Burma Is Now China's Main Ally in Southeast Asia
What are the main reasons that Burma (Myanmar) has become China's main ally in Southeast Asia and
China’s oil and other strategic resources have to be imported from around the world and most of it must pass through the chokepoint of the Malacca Straits. The Straits are the traditional home of the pirates of the South China Seas that have been the bane of so many thousands of seafarers over the centuries. Now Chinese shipping faces a potentially more deadly and implacable foe – the American navy. American forces hang around the Straits regularly and make it clear that they could, if they had a strong enough motive to do so, to close the Straits and starve China of its oil and other imports.
Such an outcome is not to be tolerated in Beijing and efforts have been made to ensure alternative routes. One of the more important of these is via land through Myanmar (Burma), which is now perhaps China’s most important ally in Southeast Asia. The revamping of roads in Myanmar is to be bolstered by the arrival of 40,000 Chinese labourers, it appears, who will rebuild the road to northeastern India and half of them will remain in country to continue with repair and maintenance work. Already more than a million Chinese have crossed the border and are seeking their fortune in Myanmar, particularly in the northern towns of Muse, Mandalay and Lashio. However, Chinese involvement in the redevelopment of the port facilities at Yangon (Rangoon) has meant a significant increase in the number of Chinese businesses in the former capital city. Notably, the quality of Chinese restaurants in Yangon is now said to rival and perhaps exceed anything to be found in the region.
There are political changes too. Both regimes are notoriously secretive and much must be surmised from little open information. However, it appears that, having been caught in unwelcome publicity for having sponsored globally unpopular allies such as North Korea, Zimbabwe and Sudan, the Chinese government is working to encourage its allies to offer a more flexible approach to the outside world. This has yet to bear obvious fruit but a sign of China’s own flexibility in such matters may be found in the fact that there are now promising relationships with all three of the Senior Generals who command the Burmese junta. Beijing certainly seemed to have been caught on the hop when its man in Burma, Khin Nyunt, was suddenly defenestrated and the Chinese government will now pursue talks with all parties rather than risking putting its eggs in just one basket. The glacial pace of political change in Myanmar may be about to change.
