Chinese
influence is visible in Myanmar’s second largest city Mandalay. As
groups exercise to the beat of Chinese techno music against the city's
backdrop of ethnic Chinese-owned developments, Myanmar's jade market is
bustling with Chinese nationals.
Trade between China and Myanmar's second-largest city is bustling as Myanmar opens up its economic potential
In a dusty corner of Mandalay, rows of Chinese
nationals sit impassively by tables lined with white cloth on a
betel-splattered sidewalk. Burmese traders crowd before them, holding up
chunks of raw jade or sacks of bangles in a bid to interest them. The
prospective buyers scrutinise the offerings, rejecting some with a flick
of their finger.
This is a buyer's market, and a symbol of what many
locals see as the kind of relationship Myanmar has with its powerful
northern neighbour.
For decades, China was the main economic outlet for a
Myanmar squeezed by Western sanctions, making it the largest cumulative
investor in one of Asean's poorest countries. While Myanmar's
transition from military to civilian rule is now opening the door to
rival prospectors, China's imprint is deepening in Mandalay.
"People call this place Yunnan- Mandalay," says Mr
Win Htay, a vice-president of the Mandalay Region Chamber of Commerce
and Industry, referring to the Chinese province bordering Myanmar. "If
you do business, and you don't work with Chinese, you simply can't make
money."
Myanmar's second-largest city sits about 450km from
the border with China by a major overland artery, along which anything
from watermelons and sugar to fertiliser and machinery are transported
between the two countries.
The former royal capital, once lined with traditional
wooden homes, now bustles with hotpot restaurants and Chinese boutiques
selling Duoyi women's fashion, Erke sportswear and Huawei smartphones.
Sidewalks by the moat surrounding its painstakingly
restored ancient palace throb with the beat of Chinese techno music on
mornings when groups of middle-aged women gather for line-dancing.
Yunnan traders are a fixture in Mandalay's sprawling
jade market, wheeling and dealing in the Burmese language. Chinese
migrant workers haggle in Mandarin with vegetable sellers on the street.
On a national level, bilateral relations have
recovered from a low in 2011, when then President Thein Sein, trying to
address concerns about Myanmar's over-dependence on China, suspended
work on the controversial China-backed Myitsone hydroelectric dam.
Chinese firms are still waiting to start work on
parts of a special economic zone in Rakhine state that was awarded to
them in 2015. But current President Htin Kyaw's visit to Beijing last
month was capped by an agreement that fired up a 771km-long oil pipeline
running from the coast of western Myanmar to the Yunnan capital of
Kunming.
"They like Chinese people here," a Chinese
construction worker, who gave only his surname Wang, told The Straits
Times, after bantering with a vendor in a night market dubbed Mandalay's
Chinatown. "We eat with the locals and we relax with them. It's not
difficult for us because they speak Mandarin too."
The ethnic Chinese, who officially make up about 5
per cent of the city's 1.4-million population, control some of the
biggest businesses around. For example, a 200 billion kyat (S$210
million), 20ha development comprising a mall, condominiums, offices and a
five-star hotel called Mingalar Mandalay is being developed by a
company founded by Myanmar-born ethnic Chinese entrepreneur Kyaw Kyaw
Win.
Many of the second- or third-generation Chinese in
Mandalay have their roots in Yunnan, though they are now Myanmar
citizens. Yet, China's growing dominance in the region has put them in
an awkward spotlight. They are often lumped together with recent
arrivals, who were accused of using bribes to get identity documents
when Myanmar was still under military rule, allowing them to start
businesses and snap up prime property downtown. While various estimates
of the influx have been made - including one of 300,000 Chinese in the
1990s - none can be proven.
"In Mandalay, they call us China people," laments Mr
Yang Choung Myint, a third-generation Chinese and vice-chairman of the
Mandalay Chinese Yunnan Association. "But when we go to China, they call
us foreigners."
On the ground, antipathy towards the Chinese is
partly triggered by their wealth, but also coloured by the fear that
China will export its pollutive industries and inferior products to
Myanmar. "They do not protect the environment," says Mr Myo Naing Soe, a
27-year-old tour guide.
Mandalay mayor Ye Lwin, in an interview with The
Straits Times, related how he had been approached by a Chinese company
to build a solar energy plant in the city. He added: "For solar panels,
quality is very important."
Among other things, Dr Ye Lwin hopes to eventually
introduce a waste-to-energy plant, a real-time traffic light control
system and a fibre-optic network in the city. But he will not rush into
awarding projects to companies.
"I will not allow a Chinese 'invasion'," he said. "There will be an equal chance for all."
In the meantime, Mandalay's Chinese hope bilateral
relations will get cosier. "If China and Myanmar's relations get better,
the local Chinese will benefit too," says Mr Myint Naing, director of
the Mandalay Overseas Chinese Service Centre. "People would not resent
us."
Ref:http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/chinas-deepening-imprint-on-myanmar-in-mandalay
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