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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.''