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Burma - China's next Tibet?
NYT-03-28-94 1838EST
IN CHINA'S LONG SHADOW, BURMESE FEEL RESENTMENT
By PHILIP SHENON
c.1994 N.Y. Times News Service
MANDALAY, Myanmar U Aung Than is putting the finishing touches
on the Great Wall of China. The six-foot-high outdoor mural he is
painting smack in the middle of this most Burmese of cities will
greet guests to Mandalay's newest high-rise hotel, the Great Wall
Inn.
Unlike many of his neighbors, the 41-year-old painter has no
thoughts -- or at least none he cares to share with a stranger --
about what they are calling here the ``Chinese invasion'' of
Myanmar, the nation still better known to the outside world by its
* former name, Burma.
``I am an artist, not a politician,'' said Aung Than, squinting
as he turned his gaze once more to the mural, which would probably
have been considered evidence of sedition if it had been painted
only a few years ago. ``I am just happy to have this job.''
For the hundreds of traders who make the trip each day, the road
to Mandalay now begins across the border in China, Myanmar's
northern neighbor and, increasingly, its most important trading
partner and military ally.
Every morning, dozens of overloaded trucks rumble onto the
streets of this lyrically named city, lugging everything from
textiles to toys, curry powder to condoms to computer software, all
made in China.
The growing Chinese trade is changing the face of Mandalay, the
last capital of the Burmese kings and the site of some of Myanmar's
most sacred religious shrines.
Today Mandalay is the nation's boomtown, a reflection both of
Chinese investment and of the junta's decision in 1988 to abandon a
generation of disastrous central planning in favor of the free
market in this nation of 43 million people.
There is construction on almost every block as colonial-era
Burmese row houses are torn down to make way for hotels,
restaurants, and shops. Property values have been doubling and
tripling in a matter of months, and then plummeting, only to rise
again in the new chaos of the real-estate market.
But among ethnic Burmese the explosion in cross-border trade
with China, illegal until a few years ago, is stirring up as much
envy and fear as excitement. ``The people who put up these new
buildings say they are Burmese, but we know they are really from
China,'' an ethnic Burmese shopkeeper said. ``They are taking over
our business and pushing us out of our homes.''
While comments like that might seem simple bigotry, the truth is
that some of the biggest new investors in Mandalay have a lot of
trouble explaining exactly who they are and where they come from.
Many of them carry Burmese identity cards, but they have no
relatives in Mandalay to speak of. They look uncomfortable in the
traditional sarongs, known as longyis, that are worn by almost all
Burmese men and women. And when they do speak, they speak Chinese.
``They are Chinese,'' said a foreign businessman who frequently
visits northern Myanmar. Two hundred miles away, on the border
between Myanmar and Yunnan Province in China, he said, a Burmese
identity card -- effectively, Burmese citizenship -- can be bought
for as little as 30,000 Burmese kyat, or about $300. ``With a card,
you are free to do business, buy a house,'' the businessman said.
Myanmar's neighbors are worried less about China monopolizing
trade than they are over the new military cooperation between
Myanmar and China.
Relations between Myanmar and its larger neighbor were strained
for decades. China long supported Burmese communist rebels -- the
guerrilla army has since disbanded -- and for many years, the
anti-communist Chinese guerrilla army of Chiang Kai-shek kept some
of its soldiers in Myanmar, along the border with China.
But Burmese-Chinese ties warmed in 1988, when other nations cut
off weapons supplies and economic aid to Myanmar to protest the
junta's brutal crackdown on democracy demonstrators.
As other nations isolated Myanmar, the Chinese stepped in. The
first large batch of Chinese weapons was shipped to Myanmar four
years ago, and diplomats say that Chinese-made arms worth about $1
billion have since turned up here.
In exchange for the arsenal, the Burmese military has reportedly
given China access to sensitive military installations along the
Bay of Bengal.
At a Burmese radar post in the Coco Islands, not far from India,
newly installed Chinese equipment is reportedly allowing Beijing to
monitor maritime traffic in some of the world's most heavily
trafficked sea lanes.
In Mandalay, local concern over the growing Chinese-Burmese
alliance is making for some uncomfortable times for the large
ethnic Chinese community that has been part of this city for
generations. They, too, resent the sudden influx of Chinese from
across the border.
* ``We who have lived in Burma all our lives are confused with
these people who came from China yesterday,'' said a merchant in
the central market in Mandalay, whose sepia-tinted family photos
against a backdrop of old Mandalay seem to prove that he was raised
here.
A few blocks away, shoppers are crowded into the Hong Kong Store
along 26th Road. It opened three years ago and became the city's
first true department store. Its racks are laden with Chinese-made
products, including televisions and other expensive electronic
goods.
``People from all walks of life come in here, and they like our
good selection very much,'' said Mah Tin Tin Myint, the 23-year-old
manager, whose uncle owns the store.
``People come in and ask if the owners have just come from Hong
Kong or from China,'' said Miss Tin Tin Myint, who is half Chinese.
* ``And I tell them no. I tell them our families came to Burma long
ago. We are Burmese and we have lived here all our lives. I tell
them that we are absolutely Burmese.''