China, Myanmar to shore up ‘marriage of convenience’ ANALYSIS 06/03/2010

China, Myanmar to shore up ‘marriage of convenience’

ANALYSIS 06/03/2010 BANGKOK — Myanmar will roll out the red carpet for the Chinese premier this week as relations between the two allies, seen as a “marriage of convenience” at the best of times, go through a rocky patch. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao heads to the military-ruled country Wednesday for a two-day visit that comes against a backdrop of shifting relations between the neighbors, and ahead of Myanmar’s first elections in two decades. It is the first visit by a Chinese premier since 1994. The Asian economic powerhouse has long helped keep Myanmar afloat through trade ties, arms sales, and by shielding it from UN sanctions over rights abuses as a veto-wielding, permanent member of the Security Council. In return, China is assured of a stable neighbor and gets access to natural resources from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. “It’s always been a marriage of convenience,” said Professor Ian Holliday, a Myanmar expert at the University of Hong Kong. “The generals in Myanmar need some sort of international support in the Security Council. China needs access to natural resources inside Burma. It also needs transportation across Burma for oil and gas.” Energy-hungry China is the junta’s key ally and trade partner, and an eager investor in the isolated state’s sizeable natural resources. In November its top oil producer began construction of a pipeline across Myanmar. But ties between the two countries frayed last year when fighting between Myanmar’s isolated ruling junta and rebel ethnic armies in the remote northeast drove tens of thousands of refugees into China. China issued a rare admonishment to Myanmar, urging it to resolve the conflict that broke out in Kokang, a mainly ethnic Chinese region of Myanmar’s Shan state. “You can see a shift in the Chinese policy on Burma because of the border instability,” said Win Min, a Burmese academic at Chiang Mai University in northern Thailand. “It was the first time that China criticized the regime very openly,” he said. Wen’s visit comes as the country prepares for polls planned for the end of this year, which critics have dismissed as a sham due to laws that have effectively barred opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from participating..... MORE     Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100603com3.html

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