With Myanmar's military junta facing increasing international isolation, Prime Minister Soe Win heads to China this week expecting to expand ties with his nation's strongest and most loyal ally.
Even as Myanmar's fellow Southeast Asian neighbors show growing signs of unhappiness over the regime's political and human rights records, China has remained solidly behind the generals while looking to broaden trade links.
"We expect that this visit will further expand and deepen the traditional friendship between China and Myanmar," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Kong Quan (
PHOTO: AFP
Kong said the two nations would sign trade agreements during Soe Win's four-day trip, while he is scheduled to receive red carpet treatment during meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao (
However the UN's former envoy to Myanmar, Razali Ismail, called on China to start pressuring the junta to reform.
"China has a critical role to play in the efforts to bring reforms and democracy in Myanmar," said Razali, a Malaysian diplomat who resigned in frustration in December after being denied access to the country for two years. "The Chinese know if they exert the political will, they can get Myanmar back on the track towards reforms. China is extremely close with Myanmar."
China, however, has given no indication it will encourage the junta to reform, with Kong insisting his government will not deviate from its strict policy of not interfering in Myanmar's "internal affairs."
Ralph Cossa, director of the Pacific Forum think tank at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said China's stance had become more important for the junta as other regional governments abandoned them.
For a long time, ASEAN had followed a similar policy of "non-interference" with member Myanmar, but last year demanded it move towards democracy and release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"China has become not only an important economic contributor, but also its political protector," Cossa said.
Cossa said this support had become "critical" in multilateral forums, with China lobbying other nations privately and publicly to avoid placing pressure on Myanmar's generals.
"You see the Chinese at every one of these meetings speaking out for Myanmar. No one else is carrying the flag for them. Politically it helps to take some of the heat off Myanmar," he said.
The US said last week it was considering introducing a resolution at the UN Security Council to step up international pressure on Myanmar over rights abuses.
China, a permanent member of the Security Council, would likely veto any such move, with Myanmar so confident of the fact that Soe Win would not even raise the matter this week, a former Thai ambassador to the UN said.
DISASTER: The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded a magnitude 5.7 and tremors reached as far as Kolkata, India, more than 300km away from the epicenter A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday outside the crowded capital, Dhaka, killing at least five people and injuring about a hundred, the government said. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 10:38am near Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 33km from Dhaka, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The earthquake sparked fear and chaos with many in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people at home on their day off. AFP reporters in Dhaka said they saw people weeping in the streets while others appeared shocked. Bangladesh Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his “deep shock and sorrow over the news of casualties in various districts.” At least five people,
LEFT AND RIGHT: Battling anti-incumbent, anticommunist sentiment, Jeanette Jara had a precarious lead over far-right Jose Antonio Kast as they look to the Dec. 14 run Leftist candidate Jeannette Jara and far-right leader Jose Antonio Kast are to go head-to-head in Chile’s presidential runoff after topping Sunday’s first round of voting in an election dominated by fears of violent crime. With 99 percent of the results counted, Jara, a 51-year-old communist running on behalf of an eight-party coalition, won 26.85 percent, compared with 23.93 percent for Kast, the Servel electoral service said. The election was dominated by deep concern over a surge in murders, kidnappings and extortion widely blamed on foreign crime gangs. Kast, 59, has vowed to build walls, fences and trenches along Chile’s border with Bolivia to
It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos. The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far. Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response. Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4
DEATH SENTENCE: The ousted leader said she was willing to attend a fresh trial outside Bangladesh where the ruling would not be a ‘foregone conclusion’ Bangladesh’s fugitive former prime minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday called the guilty verdict and death sentence in her crimes against humanity trial “biased and politically motivated.” Hasina, 78, defied court orders that she return from India to attend her trial about whether she ordered a deadly crackdown against the student-led uprising that ousted her. She was found guilty and sentenced to death earlier yesterday. “The verdicts announced against me have been made by a rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate,” Hasina said in a statement issued from hiding in India. “They are biased and politically motivated,” she
RSS