Myanmar’s largest city Yangon on Sunday (14), Myanmar people surrounded Chinese enterprises vandalism and burning incident, more than 30 mainland and Taiwan factories were destroyed. Sources also said that an expatriate leader with close ties to the Chinese government was missing. Some analysts say that the anti-Chinese attacks stem from Burmese discontent with China’s support for the Burmese military government. The Chinese Foreign Ministry declined to respond Monday (15) to the deteriorating personal safety of local Chinese, whether they would evacuate. Taiwan authorities called on Taiwanese businessmen to hang the flag of the Republic of China in their factories to avoid being affected by the disaster again.
According to foreign media reports, more than 30 Chinese- and Taiwan-invested factories in Yangon’s Hlaingthaya Industrial Park were vandalized and set on fire by protesters on Sunday. Myanmar’s state-run radio and television station (MRTV) announced on Sunday night that the Hlaingthaya district had been put under martial law and taken over by the military.
The Chinese side said two Chinese employees were injured, no one was killed and the estimated damage exceeded 240 million yuan. In Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that 10 Taiwanese were trapped in the factory on Sunday, but were fortunate to be safe. The Taiwanese businessmen were advised to hang the flag of the Republic of China in the factory, and to use a sign written in Burmese to indicate that it is a “Taiwanese enterprise” and to explain to nearby residents that it is a Taiwanese factory to avoid confusion and misjudgment.
The targeting of Chinese in Myanmar is widely believed to be related to China’s recent attitude towards the coup in Myanmar. The Chinese were once rumored to be suspected of having prior knowledge of the coup plan of the Burmese military government, and were later rumored to have provided supplies to the military government.
The attack on the Chinese businessman, Shwe Lin, a concerned person, believes that it is related to the fact that the Chinese in Myanmar do not care about universal values and think that earning money is everything. He said that many Chinese in Burma are standing against the Burmese people in the face of their determined resistance.
Shwe Lin said: Myanmar’s friends, I have called them. Because there may be some still often impose this set of China’s old Mao on people Home this country ah, so that it is difficult for you to analyze. Myanmar is a junta-controlled, it sits at the bottom of the well just like us, these Chinese on that side, they are just sulking and making a fortune. Now they can’t get rich, and they don’t know what’s going on. A lot of these people, it just migrated there for Food. He simply does not have this kind of universal values of this concept.
After the attack on the Chinese-owned factory, news from Myanmar pointed out that a local garment factory owner of Zhejiang nationality, who has close ties with the Chinese government and has also forwarded information in support of the Burmese military, was in a lost state after the attack, after our reporter contacted him several times without success. Called the Zhejiang Overseas Chinese Office to inquire, the agency said they also do not have any news, and no communication with foreign embassies and consulates to rescue the leaders of the Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar.
Zhejiang Overseas Chinese Office: I heard this morning that the situation is now more complicated on their side, it is that military coup well. In fact, there has been one after the year, we contacted him a, because he is our closer to deal with, we are not to all Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce people have communication, because we are the provincial level, mainly to see the representatives of the diaspora inside. Each member we may not have the situation. At the moment we can not contact, now we are not quite clear about the situation ah.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has not responded to this.
Anti-Chinese sentiment in Burma has been on the rise, with some local Chinese revealing that, according to official Chinese rhetoric spread to local Chinese, the Burmese people hate the Chinese because they are incited by Hong Kong and Taiwan independence.
And so far, the Burmese military, as well as the Chinese government, have been secretive about the actual loss of people and property of the Chinese companies in the attack. Microblogs and WeChat groups in the country that have tried to discuss the matter have even been outright blocked.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that the incident of smashing and looting of Chinese enterprises in Myanmar is very bad in nature, and urged the Myanmar side to take practical measures to ensure the safety of the lives and properties of the personnel of Chinese enterprises in Myanmar, and called on the Myanmar people not to be incited and used to avoid damaging the friendship and cooperation between China and Myanmar.
Zhao Lijian did not answer positively whether he would evacuate the overseas Chinese, saying that China is closely following the development of the situation in Myanmar and hopes that the Myanmar side will take practical measures to protect the safety of Chinese citizens and resolutely avoid the recurrence of similar incidents.
After the coup staged by the Burmese military, Jiangsu state-owned enterprises in Yangon invested in the Guotai Industrial Zone had suffered from the impact of the people, Chinese officials refused to evacuate the overseas Chinese at that Time in the name of Epidemic prevention. After the large-scale smashing of Chinese enterprises in Yangon’s Leidaya Industrial Park on Sunday, our reporter again inquired about the response of Jiangsu Overseas Chinese Office, the other side stressed that it did not grasp the basic situation, saying that these are matters of national level.
Jiangsu Overseas Chinese Office: Myanmar Jiangsu Chamber of Commerce ah? There is not that coup thing, because the situation is very complicated, we can not keep in touch with them at all times. Sometimes some of our friends communicate with each other on WeChat. The situation is not clear, this is the problem now. First we will contact each other, through private channels. I’m afraid to the national level, embassies, embassies and consulates over there, can not be reached only this constant contact with them to see when you can get through. We can’t contact every province, evacuating overseas Chinese is a national level function organization, call the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
On February 1 this year, the Burmese military launched a military coup on the pretext of election fraud, arrested Aung San Suu Kyi and other elected officials, and forcefully suppressed nationwide protests. According to international monitoring groups, more than 140 people have died and more than 2,100 have been arrested in nearly a month and a half of anti-coup demonstrations.
Myanmar, which borders China’s Yunnan province, held its first general election in 2015 after 25 years of military government rule. At the time, statistics from the Ta Kung Pao newspaper said that one sixth of Myanmar’s population was Chinese. The BBC, on the other hand, estimates that 3 percent of Myanmar’s population is ethnic Chinese, and in cities with dense Chinese populations, the Chinese make up 30-40 percent of the population.
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