New Myanmar Route is pivot to China
future
Hillary Clinton
will be arriving Myanmar today, which will not only make her the
first American secretary of state to visit the country in over 50
years, it will further unnerve China who has recently increasingly
worried about the aim of the US new Asia policy is to isolate and
encircle China.
Historically and geographically, Myanmar has been the closest
neighbor to China. For centuries, the two countries have enjoyed a
family tie known as “pauk-phaw (brother) in Myanmese by
intermarriage between border inhabitants.
Chinese late premier Zhou Enlai visited Myanmar 9 times while his
counterpart late Myanmar leader Ne Win visited China 12 times.
During Zhou’s first visit to Myanmar in 1954, the two countries
coined the five principles of peaceful coexistence in international
relations. The five principles are still the foundation for China’s
handling of international relations today.
For centuries until today, the two peoples travel freely across
their border on dirt roads and forested mountains. Chinese late
foreign minister Marshal Chen Yi composed a poem which reads,” I
(China) am upstream and you (Myanmar) are downstream the river. We
share water from the same river with friendship.”
Today, Myanmar is pivot of China’s grand strategy to achieve its
goal of becoming a great power in the 21st
century.
The rise of Western China depend a secured shorter trade and fuel
routes to the ocean. Close to the key shipping lanes of the Indian
Ocean and Southeast Asia, Myanmar is important for China to develop
the poor economies in its southwestern inland provinces which has a
population of about 200 million. These backward provinces want to
trade with the growing economies of Southeast Asia, India, the Arab
world and Europe. Chinese academia and government have been
discussing about using Myanmar Route as a land bridge to revive the
legendary ‘Southwest Silk Road’ from Yunnan, Sichuan and Chongqing
to Myanmar and westward to India, Africa, the Middle East and
Europe. Myanmar port would be able to shorten the distance between
China West and Indian Ocean by 3000 kilometers or by five to six
days by not passing through the Strait of Malacca and the ports in
Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Myanmar is also looked as a crucially alternative route in China’s
long-term goal of securing a safe conduit of its much-needed fuel
from Middle East and Africa.
Strategically projected as China's gateway to Indian Ocean and the
West,China in recent
decade has been constructing oil pipeline and highway in Myanmar to
obtain access to a port by Indian Ocean. With the
2,000-kilometer-Myanmar-Yunnan-Chongqing oil pipeline constructed
by China National Petroleum Corporation,China has now
almost secured an outlet to the Indian Ocean for its landlocked
southwestern provinces.
The New Myanmar Route will transport Middle East and African crude
oil from Myanmar Indian Ocean port to China's southwestern
provinces - short-cutting the long sea voyage past the Strait of
Malacca, South China Sea and East China Sea where its neighboring
countries like Japan, South Korea, the Philiphines and Vietnam are
contending with China for their claims of territorial waters and
islands.
But recently, the New Myanmar Route appear to be under increasing
threats clearly voiced by Obama and Hillary in their latest
statements. As early as 2010, Hillary Clinton declared that the
South China Sea was vital to American interest. In September this
year, Hilary announced a new American policy of South Asia by
reviving the Silk Road excluding China. In the November issue of
Foreign Policy, Hillary published a lengthy article in which she
declared the coming of America’s Pacific Century. And two weeks
later, at a forum in Honolulu, Obama echoed Hillary by announcing
that “The US is a Pacific power and we’re here to
stay.”
In the worst scenario of crisis in China-US relations, blockade of
Chinese coast and Malacca Strait could be the looming cards the US
most likely to use.
In late September this year, Hillary immediately applauded after
Burma’s surprising announcement to halt the construction of the
$3.6 billion Myitsone power station invested by a Chinese company.
A month later, Hillary announced that she would visit Myanmar as a
kind of reward to the country’s new leadership. Chinese media
speculate that the American government was behind the Myanmar’s
decision to halt the Myitsone dam.
Obama and Hillary’s latest moves to isolate and encircle China has
made the country desperate than ever to dilute its routes for
transporting fuel from the Middle East and Africa. China cannot
afford to lose the Myanmar Route.
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