Burmese people are targeting local Chinese businesses to vent their anger after China is accused of supporting the Burmese military in a coup. Burmese workers in Yangon besieged the local Cathay Garment Industrial Park on Wednesday (17), and the damage to local Chinese-owned enterprises is currently unknown because of the information blockade by the Chinese government and the Burmese military.
Mr. Chen, a garment manufacturer in Myanmar, pointed out to the station that the Chinese official support to the Burmese military who staged the coup and provided the Burmese military with materials and technical support including disconnection of the Internet has provoked the anger of the Burmese and angered the local Chinese. Following some previous piecemeal attacks and harassment, the garment industrial park in Yangon’s ShwePyiThar township, invested by state-owned Jiangsu Guotai, was besieged by Burmese workers in the park starting Wednesday morning (17).
Mr. Chen said: the Internet has been speculated, the danger has also happened, that is, like that the hooligans like the threat of intimidation has happened. The personal attack happened yesterday to a few families, that is, a few families below Cathay. He was mainly asking companies to keep their salaries, and they were going to join a march that surrounded the Chinese offices and prevented them from going out, asking for a holiday until the 28th with pay.
Mr. Chen pointed out that the Burmese workers had angered the enterprises in several parks by suggesting to them that the factory must give all Burmese workers paid leave until Feb. 28 because the workers were going to take to the streets to protest against the military coup, and that the Chinese business managers were not willing to bear the cost. The situation remained unabated until the afternoon, but the follow-up situation is unknown because information is blocked.
Asked if they could evacuate without incident if there was danger, Mr. Chen said the airport is still closed and flights have stopped except for a small number of cargo planes. Especially after the airport ground staff also went on strike to protest the junta’s coup, the evacuation of the Chinese became more difficult. But the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar has not made any statement on this. The Chinese Embassy in Burma is also having a hard Time defending itself, and the protesters outside its doors continue every day.
Our correspondent also contacted the head of another Chinese-funded chamber of commerce in Yangon, but he said he seemed to be under pressure not to say anything about it.
A former central media reporter confirmed to us that the Chinese Ministry of Propaganda has banned the media from reporting on the siege of Chinese companies and has asked the media to claim that the Chinese side has no knowledge of the coup by the Burmese military. As for the sharp deterioration of the situation of Chinese in Myanmar, no media dare to discuss it.
Chen Hongtao, a senior domestic media figure, said he has not seen any news about the siege of Chinese companies, which he believes is just the norm under the information blackout.
Chen Hongtao said: Myanmar’s Chinese-owned enterprises are under siege, if you do not say, I really do not know. But, something like this, the country can not see. This is normal, what is the firewall itself? It is to foreign some things ah, and foreign comments on the domestic ah, evaluation ah, is not let you know well. Now the media, not to mention the forwarding of news, even comments are not allowed to comment.
Our reporter called Jiangsu Guotai Group several times, but the company’s phone has been unanswered. The phone number of the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar, on the other hand, has been undialable.
In recent years, Xi Jinping‘s government has increased its foreign expansion and exported Chinese-style authoritarian politics, which has also sparked widespread resentment among people in developing countries and worsened the situation of local Chinese.
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