China rebuked from Myanmar over rail project

BANGKOK – This is definitely a bad year for the relations between China PRC and ASEAN and China will have to revise accordingly its international strategy towards its neighbours. The strategy of intimidating its neighbours over territory claims seems to have reach its limit. The Philippines and Vietnam are in fact more than ever cautious about China’s intention following territory claims and are unlikely to give any large business concessions to China’s economic interests in the near future. Although China finally agreed to dismantle last week its rig of oil in the South China Sea, relations with Vietnam have reached an all time low, since 1979- the last time China and Vietnam confronted their military troops over borders territorial claims. In the Philippines, Chinese money or investments are now suspicious and it is unlikely that the government will give any concession to its powerful neighbour.
 

In Myanmar, China was thinking that pouring lots of money in infrastructure developments would buy a new friend and provide new resources for its economy. Maybe this is the example of neighbouring Laos which gave some food for thought to Burmese people. In Laos indeed, China is systematically getting concessions on all infrastructures in exchange of a systematic lootage of all primary resources of the country. 
 

A couple of days ago, a senior official from the Myanmar Government announced that a planned rail project between the Indian Ocean and Kunming in Yunnan has been cancelled due to strong public objections and delays. 
 

A planned rail project to give China access to the Indian Ocean through Myanmar has been cancelled due to strong public objections and delays, a senior official said on Tuesday. Back to April 2011, both countries had reached an agreement initiating a 1,215 km rail line. The future railway between Kunming and Kyaukpyu in the Western State of Rakhine would have been built along an oil and gas pipeline connecting gas fields in the Andaman Sea to refineries units near Kunming. The project was due to cost US$ 20 billion, mostly paid by China. However following a clause of three years memorandum and with nothing on the horizon, the project was just cancelled.
 

“No progress within three years after signing the MoU between us, so the project was to be cancelled,” the official said. It seems that protests about the project became louder and louder over environmental and social impact concerns, forcing the Myanmar government to stop the project. 
 

This is the second time that Myanmar is forced to stop a project with China PRC under people’s pressure. In 2011, the Burmese government already cancelled a dam project in a joint venture worth US$3.6 billion.