According to the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar, as of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, March 16, 37 Chinese-owned factories had been damaged and three Chinese employees had been injured in the “smash-and-grab” incident in Myanmar. Why were Chinese factories in Myanmar attacked? Who attacked the factories? After the incident, China asked Myanmar to step up its efforts to protect Chinese citizens and Chinese companies.
China’s sole concern for the safety of Chinese investors angers Burmese people
On March 14, after riots broke out in industrial parks such as Hlaing TharYar and Shwe Pyi Tha in Yangon, Myanmar, and some Chinese-invested enterprises or Chinese-Myanmar joint ventures were damaged to varying degrees, the Chinese embassy in Myanmar quickly issued a statement to severely condemn these “smash-and-grab” incidents. “The Chinese embassy in Myanmar quickly issued a statement condemning these incidents, calling them “very bad in nature” and requesting the Myanmar side to take measures to stop the violence, investigate and punish the perpetrators in accordance with the law, and ensure the safety of Chinese enterprises, personnel and property.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman also emphasized the above-mentioned position in subsequent days, including at a regular press conference on March 17. However, none of the spokespersons expressed sympathy or comfort for the fact that at least 39 people died that night, and many more died later.
The Chinese response outraged the Burmese public. Many took to social media to condemn China’s actions, which only took into account the safety of Chinese personnel and assets, while completely ignoring the killing of protesters by the military.
Thomas Andrews, the new UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma, tweeted Sunday evening (March 14) about “the bloodiest day” in Burma, saying, “The news that Burmese security forces killed the most protesters in one day is heartbreaking and Anger. Junta leaders should not be in power, they should be thrown in jail. Their supplies of cash and weapons must be cut off immediately. I hope the UN member states hear my call for immediate action.”
Under Andrews’ tweet, a Burmese pediatrician named Ye Myint Kyaw wrote: “Russia still sells weapons to the military, and China is speaking out about the loss of two of its own factories, though it’s still unclear whether it was the military or the protesting public that did it. They didn’t even mention the deaths of dozens of innocent people that night.”
Burmese protest leader, human rights activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi, tweeted after the Chinese Embassy in Burma issued a statement on the attack on the Chinese-owned business, “Burma has turned into a killing field again today. Some 50 people reportedly dead and some Chinese factories set on fire. Until we identify the perpetrators, the Chinese Embassy is only concerned about Chinese people and their property. I hope they will see that the people killed by the military they support are also human beings.”
Soon Rey later added that the Burmese people do not hate neighboring China, but that the Chinese rulers must understand the anger of the Burmese people over the Chinese position. She continued on Twitter, “The Chinese government must stop supporting the coup if it really cares about bilateral relations with Burma and wants to protect Chinese-owned companies.”
Manny Maung is a human rights group Human Rights Watch researcher on Asia and was born in Burma. In an interview with the Voice of America, she explained why the Burmese people are angry with China. They are asking for a regime that has proven its willingness to use lethal weapons against protesters and to carry out bloody repression, and that has been accused of genocide,” she said. It’s worrisome that China is giving the military the green light to use more violence against its own civilians. This is very worrisome.”
Manny Maung said it is a human instinct to express sympathy and condolences to the families of the deceased, but China has not done so; instead, it appears to be asking the Burmese military to protect its own interests and property through more deaths and killings.
In fact, shortly after the Chinese embassy’s statement was issued, the Burmese military issued martial law in the areas involved. on March 15, military law was extended to more areas of Yangon. At the same Time, more protesters were killed by security forces.
Kyaw Win, founder and executive director of the London-based Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN), tweeted on March 16, “The massacre in Ledaia continues at the behest of China. By demanding that authorities punish the (unproven) perpetrators, China has recognized the illegitimate fascist military regime that overthrew the democratically elected government. You are interfering in our internal affairs.”
Who actually attacked the Chinese factory?
So far, the jury is still out on who actually attacked the Chinese factory. There are reports that Taiwanese companies in Myanmar have also been affected. Beijing has also stressed that it “has not been able to identify the arsonists.”
Human Rights Watch’s Manny Maung believes that if the protesters destroyed the factories and businesses, it may have been partly out of anger over China’s support for the military, but also in the hope of undermining the Burmese military’s revenue and funding sources.
China’s influence in Burma is a source of suspicion and fear,” she said. Burmese lived under a 50-year-long dictatorship, and during that time, only China had ties to the military government. There is a fear that China or the Chinese authorities are manipulating the situation in Burma. They think that the Chinese government interfered in this coup as well because they were so close to the previous junta. So it would be instinctive if they blamed China for some of the things that happened. That’s not to say, however, that they think China is the only culprit. They absolutely know that it’s the military, it’s the Burmese military that’s responsible, and they attack businesses because they do want to undermine the military’s ability to get revenue and finances.”
Manny Maung, who is knowledgeable about Myanmar’s garment industry and supply chain, believes that the attack on the Chinese factory in the Yangon industrial park is complex. It is different from attacks on the Chinese in Burma or traditional Chinese communities, so it is difficult to say that the action was necessarily against the Chinese or the Chinese government.
The industrial park in the western part of Yangon City, which is dominated by manufacturing and garment industries, was the first industrial zone to be developed in Yangon Division, and is one of the most factory-rich and best-developed industrial zones in Yangon, thus attracting a large number of Chinese companies to invest and build factories there. According to the Myanmar National Garment Association, about 40 percent of garment factories in Myanmar belong to the Chinese.
Manny Maung believes that long-standing labor conflicts between Chinese and Chinese managers and locals may also have contributed to the attacks on Chinese companies.
Many businesses here are Chinese-owned and managed by Chinese,” she said. The labor environment here has been very bad for the past 10 years. Many people have a long-standing grievance against these foreign-owned companies and the management of foreigners. So it’s not necessarily all about China. It may have happened because some people are unhappy with the management of Chinese-owned companies in this particular place …… In this region, antipathy toward China has been growing.”
The Wall Street Journal quoted Moe Sandar Myint, president of the National Union of Workers of Burma, as saying that many garment factory workers have been threatened by their Chinese employers for participating in protests and civil disobedience campaigns.
Manny Maung of the human rights group said that anti-Chinese sentiment is indeed growing in Burma’s industrial parks, a particular place, and that statements by the Chinese government supporting the military’s measures to protect Chinese companies are similarly “adding fuel to the fire.
However, Burmese protesters believe that the military set the fire and then blamed the protesters in order to justify further crackdowns later.
Sammy (a pseudonym) is a freelance graphic designer in Yangon, Burma. He describes the scene he heard about.
On March 14, the armed forces fired live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters in the town,” he said. The crowd of protesters kept growing. Some people were shouting that if the junta continued to fire on the protesters, we would target military businesses or any factories associated with the military. In reality, we did not cause any injuries or damage. But later, we heard that two Chinese-owned factories were set on fire. Some witnesses said that it was military personnel who entered the factories and in order to set the fires, they even attacked the management.”
Social media in Burma has also been full of people testifying that the military sent people to attack the factories. Kyaw Win, founder and executive director of the London-based Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN), also tweeted that it was military personnel who attacked the Chinese-owned factory. However, in his latest tweet, sent on March 16, he said that the owners of the Chinese-owned factory had burned the factory themselves to obtain insurance compensation. He also attached a related video to the tweet.
However, it is also true that there were threats to destroy Chinese facilities in Myanmar before the Chinese-owned factories were attacked. About a week ago, a leak from Myanmar’s foreign ministry revealed that China expressed high concern about the security of the China-Myanmar oil and gas pipeline in Myanmar after a coup on Feb. 23. Burmese people reacted sharply when they learned of the incident, with some threatening online that the bombing of the two pipelines was also an “internal affair” of Burma.
Khin Zaw Win, a political commentator in Yangon, has told VOA that the Burmese people have long resented what China and Russia have done in the Security Council. It would be “the worst thing for China to seek guarantees for Chinese institutions and personnel from a brutal and repugnant military government at this time,” he said. He said, “The biggest problem in Myanmar right now is the coup, which the Burmese see as a return to dictatorship.”
China’s “non-interference” policy angers Burmese
Unlike the U.S. and Western condemnations and sanctions, China has so far refrained from condemning the military coup on the grounds of “non-interference in internal affairs. At the beginning of the coup, Chinese officials even said that the military was simply conducting a “cabinet reshuffle.
Burmese are very unhappy with China’s “non-interference in internal affairs” and see the coup as different from ordinary internal affairs. Yang Shengfu, a Burmese Chinese in Yangon, said in an interview with Voice of America Focus: “This of course has to do with the official position of Beijing. Every time we hear the Chinese side say that this is an internal affair of Burma, people are very angry. For the Burmese people, it’s not a political issue, it’s a matter of justice and injustice. The military has taken power away from them, and it’s killing so many people now. A lot of people have this analogy, you see a man who is beating his wife, how are you going to react? Are you going to say, “It’s their Family business, or are you going to help the wife who’s being bullied?”
Yangon resident Yang Shengfu said China might have won the hearts and minds of the Burmese people more if it had made a clearer statement of support for the protesters.
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