<<China first became an oil importing country in 1993. Its insatiable hunger for oil has since been an important factor in driving up world oil prices>> i think the super super insatiable oil addicted country is right here , the U.S.A. The oil crisis is simply that some other people now want oil. I like to see figures on our oil consumption versus China, i would be amazed if we were not still far the biggest oil guzzler.
China eyes other pipelines after rebuff from Russia
Given that the United States desires control of the Malacca Straits which would give them command of not only a third of global trade but half the world’s oil supplies which would include oil shipped from Saudi to China and that China with well over 80 percent of their imports being shipped through the narrow strait is considering a pipeline in Myanmar as a lifeline or alternative route I would look for the United States to instigate major upheavals in Myanmar. #msg-3415458
Bush is depending on a significant amount of Kazakhstan oil to feed his U.S. backed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and can’t be happy at the prospect of the Kazakhstan/China pipeline or that fact that the pipeline could be extended to Kazakhstan's even richer oil fields in the Caspian Sea area.
See also: China mulls oil pipelines in Myanmar, Thailand #msg-4103878
-Am
China eyes other pipelines after rebuff from Russia With plans for the Siberian link-up stalled, Beijing turns to Kazakhstan and Myanmar to secure oil supply
By Larry Teo
WITH the prospect of building an oil pipeline from Siberia to China's north-east receding by the day, a Beijing anxious about energy security is looking to Kazakhstan to help meet its needs.
Work began this week on a pipeline in this central Asian republic - formerly a part of the defunct Soviet Union - that is expected to pump oil into China's western Xinjiang province in a year.
Beijing and Astana have concluded what appears to be a win-win deal. Mr Zhanybek Karibzhanov, the Kazakh ambassador to China, was particularly bullish: 'When completed, this pipeline will attract a long queue of clients intending to sell oil to China.'
Meanwhile, another pipeline, though still being studied, has moved a step closer towards fruition.
This would link Myanmar's Akyab port to Ruili in China's south-west Yunnan province, conveying mainly oil shipped from the Middle East and Africa.
According to Professor Wang Chongli of Yunnan's Academy of Social Sciences, China is keen on the project because of Yangon's recent agreement to revive an old trade route that linked Yunnan to the Bay of Bengal.
Recent reports said that a group of Chinese engineers was at Myanmar's Irrawady River surveying the Bhamo port, which will be rebuilt into a transit point for goods headed for China or the Bay of Bengal.
'It's the attitude of the Myanmar government. Now they agree to have discussions. Previously, they refused,' Prof Wang told the media, suggesting that Beijing had put the pipeline on its drawing board.
'China's need for oil is great and urgent. Any pipeline, any route, would be beneficial.'
As China's oil import is expected to rise to 12.7 million barrels a day by 2020, from 6.2 million this year, Beijing is turning increasingly to cross-border pipelines to secure supply.
But during his trip last weekend to Moscow, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao failed to win a commitment from the Russians to build the proposed pipeline linking Siberian oil fields to north-eastern China.
According to Russia, it will make its decision early next year. Mr Wen was only assured of delivery of 10 million tonnes of crude by rail next year and 15 million tonnes in 2006.
Russia's coolness towards China has raised the hopes of Japan, another contender for the Siberian crude, that Moscow would run the pipeline to Nakhodka on the Pacific coast, where oil can be loaded onto Japan-bound tankers.
Ms Liu Ming, from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, thinks the Beijing government is partly to blame for Russia's cool response.
The courtship had begun 10 years ago but China's negotiator, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), did not receive Beijing's support until Mr Wen's trip.
Singling out Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's effort in wooing the Russians, Ms Liu said: 'Our government should do the same for our own oil men abroad, giving them back-up when necessary.
'Also, China needs a truly specialised energy body to handle such matters.'
Luckily for China, the uncertainty in the north is being compensated for in the west.
The success in Kazakhstan, in fact, has its roots in 1997, when CNPC succeeded in acquiring stakes in the Kazakh oil company Aktobe Munaigas.
When oil starts flowing next year from Kazakhstan, China will get 10 million tonnes a year. This will be doubled in 2011.
In fact, the pipeline can be extended to Kazakhstan's even richer oil fields in the Caspian Sea area.
Said the People's Daily: 'China's energy diplomacy relating to Russia, Kazakhstan and Myanmar are of great importance as they concern supplies which could sustain the country during a crisis.
'And each plan can be a back-up for the others. This shows China has learnt to put its eggs in as many baskets as possible, leaving nothing to chance.'
Currently, 60% of China's oil imports are transmitted through the Malacca Strait. Should it ever be blocked, China would suffer enormously. China therefore has proposed an alternative route, a Sino-Myanmar pipeline. #msg-4103878
It is obvious China understands this is not about the U.S. wanting command of the Strait of Malacca solely to fight terrorism.
Myanmar’s tilt away from democracy and Musharraf’s predicted downfall which could be an invitation for China to walk into Pakistan will drastically change the complexion of the region or the world for that matter. #msg-4327075
Silly Bush, he does all the bombing and the ‘hard work’ and the watcher, China, crouches and waits for the right moment.
-Am
Myanmar's Secretive Regime Ousts PM
Updated 10:36 AM ET October 19, 2004
By DANIEL LOVERING
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Myanmar's secretive military regime has forced out its prime minister, seen as a relative pragmatist, and replaced him with a general who has taken a hard line in dealing with the country's pro-democracy movement.
Myanmar's state radio and television announced Tuesday that Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt was replaced by a top member of the country's ruling junta, Lt. Gen. Soe Win.
Khin Nyunt was "permitted to retire for health reasons," the statement said _ a euphemism used in the past for the forced ouster of Cabinet members. The statement was signed by the junta's supreme leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
The removal of Khin Nyunt could tilt the balance of power toward harder-line generals and further delay the stalled reconciliation process with the pro-democracy opposition led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Officials in neighboring Thailand said Khin Nyunt had been removed and placed under house arrest on corruption charges.
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962. The poor, isolated Southeast Asian nation has faced sanctions by western countries for years over its failure to introduce democratic reforms and to release Suu Kyi from house arrest. The European Union tightened its sanctions last week. Human rights groups accuse Myanmar of violations including using political prisoners as slave laborers.
Pro-democracy protests led by Suu Kyi were bloodily suppressed in 1988, and Khin Nyunt was one of the younger generation of generals who assumed power.
In the past year, Khin Nyunt, also head of military intelligence, promoted what he called a roadmap toward democracy in U.N.-brokered contacts between the government and Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy. The talks went nowhere, and critics accused the government of using stalling tactics to retain its monopoly on power.
Soe Win is believed to espouse a hard line in dealing with Suu Kyi's movement and with foreign critics who want the army to hand over power to an elected government. With the appointment, Soe Win moves from his high-ranking post of secretary-1 of the junta, which is officially called the State Peace and Development Council.
A spokesman for the Thai government _ which frequently reports on internal affairs of Myanmar's closed society _ said Khin Nyunt had been placed under house arrest on corruption charges.
"We can confirm that Khin Nyunt has been removed from the position of prime minister and is being detained under house arrest," Jakrapob Penkair told The Associated Press.
There were rumors in Myanmar that soldiers had raided military intelligence headquarters, which Khin Nyunt had long headed and was the source of his power. There was no sign of increased military presence in Yongon, the Myanmar capital.
The military intelligence position was expected to be filled by Maj. Gen. Myint Swe, the 53-year-old commander of Yangon Division's military forces, according to sources in the Myanmar capital, Yangon, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Newspaper editors in Myanmar were told Monday night not to publish any news about Khin Nyunt in Tuesday's papers. Monday's newspapers carried pictures of Khin Nyunt on their front pages unveiling a plaque for an HIV/AIDS prevention exhibition in the northern city of Mandalay.
A customs official at a checkpoint in Mai Sai, a northern Thai border town, said Myanmar officials had halted trade Tuesday after hearing rumors of a coup. "Basically, commercial trade has stopped completely," said Kiartchai Phongprapai, an assistant border official.
Khin Nyunt had been in an awkward position since last month, when regular army soldiers raided a checkpoint dominated by military intelligence officers at Muse on the Myanmar-China border. Large quantities of gold, jade and currency were seized.
Some 150 intelligence, immigration, customs and police personnel were arrested, including at least three military intelligence colonels who remain in custody and are expected to be charged.
Khin Nyunt assumed the prime minister's post last year in what was seen as a demotion from the positions he had previously held in the ruling clique of generals, increasingly dominated in recent years by hard-liners.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The United States is trying for control of the Strait of Malacca. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said during a visit to Singapore that he hoped to have US troops fighting terrorism in Southeast Asia "pretty soon". His comments fuelled speculation that the United States wants to deploy US forces in the Strait of Malacca, the narrow and busy shipping lane straddled by Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore that is seen as a likely terrorist target. More than one million tonnes of oil a year -- well over 80 percent of China's imports -- are shipped through the narrow strait. #msg-3404130 #msg-3542419
On Sunday, Myanmar's Information Minister Kyaw Hsan told journalists, "It is crystal clear that the terrorists ... and the time bombs, originated from training conducted with foreign experts at a place in a neighboring country by a world-famous organization of a certain superpower nation." His circuitous language was widely perceived as fingering Thailand, the CIA and the United States.
As usual there is a pipeline involved and Bush wants to control the flow of oil throughout the world.
Currently, 60% of China's oil imports are transmitted through the Malacca Strait. Should it ever be blocked, China would suffer enormously. China therefore has proposed an alternative route, a Sino-Myanmar pipeline. The junta, given the reaction of the United States, may have been backed by China in order to guarantee the safety of the Sino-Myanmar pipeline. #msg-3700480
The United States doesn't want to absorb Iraq or take direct possession of its oil. That's not the way of empire today; it's about control over the flow of oil and oil profits, not ownership.
In a world that runs on oil, the nation that controls the flow of oil has great strategic power. U.S. policy-makers want leverage over the economies of competitors -- Western Europe, Japan and China -- that are more dependent on Middle Eastern oil. #msg-4798276
-Am
Blame game continues over Myanmar blasts By Richard S Ehrlich
May 19, 2005
BANGKOK - Thailand said it will pursue terrorists described by Myanmar as Central Intelligence Agency-trained, because "maybe someone did something along the border", resulting in a synchronized triple-bombing in Myanmar on May 7 that killed 19 people.
"Thailand does not harbor terrorists, and the Thai government will not allow terrorists to shelter on the Thai soil," said Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who hopes to maintain Bangkok's lucrative business relations with Yangon. "The statement from Myanmar did not specify the Thai government's involvement. But maybe someone did something along the border," the prime minister said on Monday.
"Myanmar will just have to name the suspects and coordinate with us through diplomatic channels, so that we can jointly arrest and interrogate the suspects," Thaksin said.
Thailand is a pliant military and economic ally of the United States, an eager business partner with Myanmar, and publicly gives "humanitarian aid" to unarmed members of ethnic minorities fleeing occasional rebel skirmishes inside the junta-ruled country.
Officials in Yangon have hinted that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) trained, armed and financed "terrorists" on the Thai side of the lengthy, jungle-clad and porous Thai-Myanmar border, enabling them to detonate three bombs made of a demolition explosive called RDX in Myanmar's capital. No one claimed responsibility and no one was immediately arrested for the bombings, which took place at two supermarkets and a conference center on May 7.
According to an official statement from the Myanmar regime published on Tuesday, "The anti-government elements in exile formed an alliance with remnant national race [minority ethnic] armed groups active in border areas, and set up the [exiled] National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma.
"They have been committing various destructive and terrorist acts, such as waging armed revolt against the Tatmadaw [military] government, hijacking, raiding the Myanmar Embassy in Thailand," as well as detonating bombs around the nation and destroying roads, bridges, and gas pipelines, said the accusation in the government-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
On Sunday, Myanmar's Information Minister Kyaw Hsan told journalists, "It is crystal clear that the terrorists ... and the time bombs, originated from training conducted with foreign experts at a place in a neighboring country by a world-famous organization of a certain superpower nation." His circuitous language was widely perceived as fingering Thailand, the CIA and the United States.
Myanmar is mainland Southeast Asia's biggest country and consistently blasts the United States for trying to destabilize it, despite allowing a US$1 billion, 40-mile-long, natural gas pipeline to run from Myanmar into Thailand that includes a massive investment by California-based Unocal corporation, which came under acquisition in April by ChevronTexaco.
Possible bombers with motives and expertise include: Minority ethnic guerrillas fighting in Myanmar for the past 50 years for autonomy or independence along the border. Over the decades, they have received international medical treatment, illegal military training by foreign mercenaries, and a media platform to blast Myanmar's repressive military government. The junta has named ethnic Shan, Karen and Karenni rebels as taking part in the blasts, but they have denied involvement. Competition among some guerrilla groups for illegal opium, heroin and methamphetamine smuggling routes through Myanmar's Shan state recently erupted in violence in the mountains along the border.
Fugitive Myanmar intelligence agents close to former prime minister Khin Nyunt, who was arrested in October amid charges of corruption and other abuses. Khin Nyunt had headed Myanmar's military intelligence agency, and when he was removed from his post his network was also dismantled, resulting in scores of arrests and a split within Myanmar's vicious and secretive domestic spy agency. At least 38 intelligence officers linked to him were jailed in April for sentences ranging from 20 to 100 years. Hundreds more of his cronies are awaiting tribunals.
Myanmar's government itself, which has come under suspicion by its opponents who claim only the battle-hardened military regime had the capability and resources to stage the sensational triple bombing, as Yangon is riddled with informants and monitored by government phone-tappers.
Internationally, Buddhist-majority Myanmar enjoys support from China, India, Singapore and elsewhere, though it suffers some economic sanctions imposed by Europe and the United States amid demands for an end to military rule and human-rights atrocities.
Richard S Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco, California. He has reported news from Asia since 1978 and is co-author of Hello My Big Big Honey!, a non-fiction book of investigative journalism. He received a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
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