Replies to post #5012 on Foreign Correspondence

[otraque]

edit:i repeat i don't give a damn who over throws the Myanmar regime , i just want them brought down and hard,PERIOD.
I don't even give a damn about the why.
added:
This an existential thing.
The DARK DEEP EVIL is the brutal reality that the Myanmar Military regime does exist, i want them to be extinquished, even if it requires the devil to do it.

[Amaunet]

Myanmar plays off India and China


Pls see message to which this replies.
#msg-7186922

-Am



By Sudha Ramachandran

Aug 17, 2005

BANGALORE - Even as counter-insurgency cooperation between the armies of India and Myanmar has grown in recent years, collaboration between the navies of Myanmar and China - India's rival - on issues impinging on India's national security interests is moving far more rapidly, and now a Sino-Myanmar joint intelligence operation is underway near India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Last month, reports suggested that India and Myanmar were considering upgrading their counter-insurgency cooperation from coordination to joint operations. With the Myanmar army seemingly unable to use military equipment supplied by India to fight anti-India rebels taking sanctuary in Myanmar, India apparently asked the Myanmar junta to consider inviting Indian troops to Myanmar to deploy the equipment in operations that the Indian and Myanmar forces would use against the rebels.

Even as India awaits the invitation from the junta, the latter has stepped up its interaction with the Chinese. According to the Public Affairs Magazine, Myanmar's navy "is conducting a survey near the Andamans to set up a patrol base and a small port, but officials and diplomats suspect an intelligence operation is underway both to map the Andaman Sea at the behest of China and to study deep-water movement of big ships". Given the undemarcated sea boundaries between India and Myanmar, encroachments - accidental and deliberate - into each other's waters do take place. But this time it seems intentional. According to the the report, "The present activity appeared inspired by Chinese intelligence requirements in respect of the Andamans and the surrounding waters."

Myanmar-China cooperation in the waters around the Andamans is not new. It has been an issue of concern for India for several years now and was, in fact, among the main reasons why India decided in the mid-1990s to correct its pro-democracy tilt in Myanmar and court the generals instead.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are scattered across 750 kilometers north to south in the Bay of Bengal. This chain of islands separates the Bay of Bengal from the Malacca Strait. While it is more than 1,200 kilometers from India, it is just 90 kilometers from Indonesia and 50 kilometers from Myanmar. Its strategic significance to India lies, among other things, in its proximity to the Malacca Strait. Besides, Myanmar's Coco Islands lie about 45 kilometers to the north of the Andaman Islands.

Myanmar's military government leased the Coco Islands to the Chinese in 1994. China has a maritime reconnaissance and electronic intelligence station on the Great Coco Island and is building a base on Small Coco Island. The significance of these facilities for China stems from the fact that the Coco Islands are located at a crucial point in traffic routes between the Bay of Bengal and the Malacca Strait and lie very close to India. India's first joint services command, the Joint Andaman and Nicobar Strategic Defense Command, is headquartered in Port Blair in the Andaman Islands.

The Coco islands are an ideal location for monitoring Indian naval facilities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and also movements of the Indian navy and other navies throughout the eastern Indian Ocean. India believes that the Chinese are using the Coco Islands to keep an eye on India's missile-testing facilities at Chandipur-on-Sea located in the eastern coastal state of Orissa.

According to Indian defense analyst Rahul Bedi, "China is reportedly training Myanmar's naval intelligence officials and helping Yangon execute surveys of its coastline contiguous to India." Drawing attention to the "burgeoning naval cooperation" between the two countries, he writes that China is helping Myanmar modernize its naval bases at Hianggyi, Coco, Akyab, Zadetkyi Kyun, Mergui and Khaukphyu. It has provided help in building radar, refit and refuel facilities that are expected to support Chinese submarine operations in the region.

"China's interest in the region is part of its Offshore Defense Strategy," said Lawrence Prabhakar, associate professor at the Madras Christian College and research fellow at the maritime security program at the Institute for Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore. The offshore active defense strategy envisages the setting up and operating out of a number of island chains. It is believed that the Chinese navy - the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) will expand its operations to bases in Myanmar. These bases will provide the PLAN with direct access to the Malacca Strait and the Bay of Bengal.

The Chinese, points out Prabhakar, are keen to secure the sea lanes of communication (SLOCs), which are pivotal to China's maritime trade and energy flows from the Persian Gulf to southwest Asia. "They are interested in developing naval capabilities in the Indian Ocean region and with this in mind are developing access and basing facilities in Gwadar [Pakistan] and Mergui, Hianggyi, Coco, Akyab, Zadetkyi Kyun, Mergui and Khaukphyu Yangon and other ports in Myanmar as that would open the Irrawady River for Chinese inland commerce through Myanmar, with its sea access to the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean. This is an effort to develop an alternate route complementing the sea access via the Malacca Strait," he told Asia Times Online.

Bedi points out that China is working hard at securing a corridor to the Indian Ocean from southern China via Myanmar, in addition to the established route via the Malacca Strait. "As a first step in this direction China has already constructed a highway from Kunming, capital of its Yunan province to Shewli on the Myanmar border. According to a proposal that is being reviewed by Myanmar's military junta, Beijing wants to extend that road link to Sinkiang for access to the Irrawady River flowing through to Yangon, and into the Andaman Sea. Once completed, Chinese barges would transport Chinese goods down the Irrawady to Yangon and transfer them onto waiting Chinese ships."

India's interest in the Bay of Bengal stems from the fact that this is its backyard. The Andaman and Nicobar archipelago is vital for India's outreach and defense, points out Prabhakar. Piracy, maritime poaching, gun-running and narcotics trafficking in the waters here threaten India's interests. Besides, India has to secure its SLOCs in its Eastern seaboard to Southeast Asia via the Malacca Strait and also its strategic nuclear and missile installations along its east coast that are vulnerable to Chinese surveillance.

To protect its interests in the region against China's rapidly growing presence here, India has increased naval-air surveillance of Chinese ship movements. "It has also conducted joint exercises with Southeast Asian navies in the Andaman Sea, especially with the Royal Malaysian Navy and the Republic of Singapore Navy. They are meant to enhance India's cooperative maritime security with Southeast Asia - China's backyard," said Prabhakar.

While India and China seek to enhance their security by stepping up their presence in the Bay of Bengal and wooing countries like Myanmar, the latter is gaining by cooperating with both its big-power neighbors, bargaining with them and getting itself a good deal in the process. In return for Chinese investment in its economy and massive arms transfers and training to its armed forces, Myanmar is making gains with China in the naval-maritime front. With India, Myanmar is getting technical assistance and investment in infrastructure development as well as securing its border with India. In return, it is helping the Indian army fight insurgency in its troubled northeast.

While taking what it can from its powerful neighbors, Myanmar has sought to use them to counter the other from gaining an excessive hold over its economy, polity and society. The India-China battle for influence in the region has provided Myanmar with a win-win situation.

Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in Bangalore.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GH17Df01.html

[Amaunet]

China uses trade to prop Myanmar regime


This is a good example of the strategy that China uses instead of the military invasions or bogus democracies employed by the United States.

Myanmar fears an Invasion from the sea. Bush and India want Myanmar. Bush holds India’s leash as he equips India to contain China and is committed to transfer an amphibious defence transport ship to India early next year.
#msg-7186922

However, India is also looking to develop the Andaman Sea, without cooperation from China. India is unlikely to move towards cooperation with Beijing on this issue because New Delhi sees building a port at Dawei, Myanmar as a major component to its security strategy for the region. The port will support its Far Eastern Naval Command project at Port Blair, which is aimed at gaining "blue water" status for India's Navy, affording India the ability to launch military operations away from its coast.
#msg-7086905

China uses a ‘no interference’ philosophy diametrically opposed to the US ‘interference’ agenda. While I believe China to have chosen the better path Myanmar is one of the cases in which China’s way is shown in the worst of lights. Because of Myanmar’s importance to China this has to be a country on the Dragon’s must hold list.
#msg-9886658

As China occupies a greater place on the world stage, it faces international pressure to help deal with global trouble spots rather than shore up tyrannical regimes. China has responded in one area: It hosts six-nation talks to coax North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs.

Not so fast, with floods of cash and a new policy of patience and friendly support, China has quietly penetrated the thick wall surrounding North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's regime - gaining significant leverage for the first time in one of the world's most closed societies.
#msg-9932251

-Am


China uses trade to prop Myanmar regime

Posted on Mon, Mar. 06, 2006

By Tim JohnsonKnight Ridder NewspapersRUILI, China - China has tossed an economic lifeline to the military regime of Myanmar, and the lifeline passes through this border city.
Every day, hundreds of trucks disgorge all manner of goods for trade. Across the border, Chinese work crews build roads, fell forests and operate gold and jade mines. A major cross-border oil and gas pipeline is in the works.
China has a habit of coddling repressive regimes. In places such as Sudan, Iran, Zimbabwe and Myanmar, all under some type of international sanction, China has stepped in with diplomatic protection, usually in exchange for market access for its goods or a stake in oil fields or other natural resources.
As China occupies a greater place on the world stage, it faces international pressure to help deal with global trouble spots rather than shore up tyrannical regimes. China has responded in one area: It hosts six-nation talks to coax North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs.
Yet in remote corners such as this one, snug against the hilly frontier with the nation once known as Burma, China is resisting global efforts to end a decades-old military dictatorship. How China deals with Myanmar reflects how it wields its power in the early 21st century.
In the past few months, China has signed several energy deals with Myanmar, which now has the world's 10th largest known reserves of natural gas.
In November, PetroChina ironed out a deal for 6.5 trillion cubic feet of gas to be piped overland from Myanmar's offshore fields to Kunming in China's Yunnan province.
A month later, Myanmar got a partial payback. China, which occupies one of five permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council, was instrumental in derailing a U.S. push to investigate and punish Myanmar for widespread repression of its citizens.
"That's why they didn't have a formal investigation. It was an informal discussion," said Josef Silverstein, a scholar on Myanmar affairs who's based in Princeton, N.J.
In Ruili, a city of 120,000, an economic boom is the result of a trade bonanza with Myanmar, some of it in vast illegal logging along the 1,370-mile border.
Ruili's ebullient mayor, Gong Nengzheng, offered a visitor plate after plate of tropical fruit as he expounded on China's unusual trading arrangements with Myanmar.
"We build roads for them, and they give us merchandise, like seafood and minerals," Gong said.
China also is building internal roads and railways to facilitate trade. Chinese companies have built 190 miles of highway in Myanmar, Gong said, and they'll soon construct a 67-mile rail link to Lashio, a final link of a pan-Asia network. China provides all know-how, equipment and labor, he said.
Those living in Myanmar along the border with China use water and electricity service from China. Those who can afford them use Chinese cell phones.
Myanmar's growing dependence on China disheartened some ethnic Burmese.
"It is the 25th province of China," U Aung Kyaw Zaw, a longtime resident of Ruili, said of his homeland. "It is an economic colony."
During the 1970s and much of the 1980s, relations between China and Myanmar were tense. Beijing backed an insurgency across the border.
But both nations experienced large pro-democracy protests (Burma in 1988 and China in 1989) that rattled their governments. Isolated from the West, the two nations changed their views of each other.
China started seeing Myanmar, Asia's poorest nation, as a repository of raw materials and a potential outlet to the Indian Ocean. Myanmar's leaders lobbied for diplomatic support, trade and billions of dollars in weapons sales from China.
China vowed not to meddle in Myanmar's affairs in return for investment deals, a template for Chinese behavior elsewhere, such as in Africa and the Middle East.
"They are finding weak countries that have dictatorial governments, with rich material resources and no infrastructure," said Sarah "Meg" Davis, a scholar of ethnic minorities in China. "They go in. They prop up the dictatorial governments. And they get a big cut of the timber and energy."
After a Feb. 14-18 trip to China, Myanmar Prime Minister Soe Win announced that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told him that Beijing pledged unwavering support and opposed "imposition of economic sanctions" at the United Nations.
China is leery of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democracy advocate who was denied power after her party swept 1990 elections and has been kept largely under house arrest since. Instead, China appears to want Myanmar's military leaders to reform the economy without loosening their grip on power.
"They would like to see the Burmese economy develop more rapidly and more effectively, so they could make more money," said Robert H. Taylor, a Myanmar expert at the Institute of Southeast Asia Studies in Singapore.
Chinese merchants already smell profit.
With a tour group in tow, guide Sun Dehong said he was bringing business owners from inland China to "do research about the business situation" in Myanmar.
"They want to export Chinese products, like motorcycles, phones, clothing and motor pumps. They come from Fujian, Sichuan. They are all business people," Sun said.
Bilateral trade between China and Myanmar hit $1.2 billion last year. Myanmar's total trade volume was $5 billion.
Ruili city fathers say the border is on the cusp of greater trade. An expressway from the provincial capital, Kunming, will be finished next year. At the Ruili end, officials have built a 10-lane border customs facility. Already, 12,000 people cross every day.
Emerging out of vacant fields and ponds, the tax-free Jiegao Special Economic Zone has mushroomed, now with more than 1,000 stores and 80 jade factories.
At the city's jade and pearl market, store owner Yang Zhanwei hailed China's economic development.
"Burma has no industry," said Yang, a petrified wood dealer. "I think China helps Burma's economy a lot. But if Burma would open up more, it could develop faster."
Chinese analysts describe Beijing's policies toward Myanmar as pragmatic and useful for both sides, similar to how Washington deals with Saudi Arabia. They say China may be offering vital economic trade to Myanmar, without getting much sway in return.
Many outsiders concur that the generals in power appear resistant to most pressure, even from such a strong economic ally as China.
"We have a regime there that can survive," said Taylor, the scholar in Singapore. "Seventeen years of the regime, and they haven't budged an inch. ... They can stonewall anybody."

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/14032605.htm