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China comes to Burmese junta's rescue again
Irrawaddy - March 19, 2010
Wai Moe – Beijing has once again come to the defense of Burma's ruling junta, using its permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to block a move by the UK to raise the issue of the regime's recently announced electoral laws.
"A number of council members support the idea of discussing Burma and getting an update on the situation there. It's the subject of negotiations with the Chinese at the moment, who are always reluctant on these matters," a Western diplomat told Reuters on Friday.
Following the announcement of new electoral laws on March 8 that ban Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other dissidents from contesting this year's planned election, Burma's ruling generals have faced a fresh wave of international condemnation.
In an effort to apply pressure on the junta to review the laws, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose country is also a permanent member of the UNSC, sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon earlier this week requesting an emergency meeting to discuss the matter.
"Burma has ignored the demands of the UN Security Council, the UN Secretary-General, the US, EU and its neighbors by imposing restrictive and unfair terms on elections," Brown said on Monday, adding that the UK would seek international support to impose an arms embargo against Burma.
According to The Inner City Press, a news agency focusing on UN affairs, Mark Lyall Grant, London's Permanent Representative to the UN, walked into the UNSC meeting on Tuesday morning to talk about Brown's letter.
Instead of agreeing to a UNSC meeting on Burma, however, Ban requested a meeting of the Group of Friends of the Secretary-General on Myanmar [Burma] on March 25.
The Group of Friends includes Australia, China, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, the UK, the US, Vietnam and the president of the EU, a position currently occupied by Spain.
It was formed in December 2007 as part of a renewed effort to find an international consensus to deal with Burma following the junta's crackdown on monk-led mass demonstrations in September of that year.
On Monday, Beijing also offered its support to the junta at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. China's representative to the council, Luo Cheng, said there has been an improvement in Burma human rights situation.
He added that China appreciated the regime's efforts to achieve political reconciliation.
China also prevented the UNSC from taking up the subject of Burma in October 2009, when the matter was raised by the US and its allies. At the time, China said the council should focus on civilian casualties in Afghanistan instead of Burma.
Despite this show of public support for the regime, however, some Chinese experts on Burma said policy makers in Beijing were also disappointed by Naypyidaw's election laws, which rejected international calls for inclusive elections.
A Chinese scholar on Burma who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the laws were not just a source of concern for the West, but also for China.
China is also worried about ethnic issues along the Sino-Burmese border. Tensions between Naypyidaw and border-based armed ceasefire groups have been growing since last year over the regime's demands for the groups to transform themselves into border guard forces. A return to open hostilities on the border could affect stability and impact on Chinese's interests in Burma.
In addition to the billions of dollars invested by Chinese state-owned companies in Burma's oil and gas and hydropower industries and Beijing's major role in developing trade routes to South and Southeast Asia through the country, Chinese businessmen are involving in a wide array of legal and illegal businesses in Burma, from border trade and jade mining to drug smuggling and human trafficking.
This week, officials from both countries held a regular meeting of a Sino-Burmese border committee in Tangyan, near areas controlled by the United Wa State Army, the largest ethnic ceasefire group. The tension over the border guard force issue was reportedly among the subjects discussed, as part of China's efforts to maintain stability on the border.
"Keeping the border area between China and Myanmar [Burma] stable is the most important task for the Chinese government," the scholar said. "But what Beijing will do if instability occurs is a big secret in China."
He added that Beijing is concerned that the Burmese regime's handling of the election law issue, which reflects its disregard for international opinion, could also be an indication of how it intends to deal with the ethnic ceasefire groups.
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