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According to a US-based human rights organization, EarthRights International (ERI), the Chinese grip on Myanmar’s natural resources has grown considerably in a short time. ERI’s survey identifies 69 Chinese companies engaged in oil, gas, hydropower development and mining - a 250 per cent increase on the number thought to be operating in Myanmar when a similar study was made one year ago. The ERI noted that Myanmar has become “geopolitically significant” to the Chinese as their mushrooming economy demands ever more natural resources, notably energy related. The survey identifies the most firms in hydropower developments—at least 45 companies actively engaged or planning 63 projects, ranging from small dams to the massive scheme on the River Salween at Tasang. In Myanmar’s mushrooming oil and gas sectors, at least 16 Chinese companies are named, including all three of China’s biggest transnational enterprises, Sinopec, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). ERI pinpoints the Arakan coast as one of the most significant strategic locations for China’s long-term plans for vacuuming up global oil and gas reserves. A terminal for oil shipped in from the Middle East and Africa, plus pipelines across Myanmar into southwest China, would “increase the efficiency of China’s oil and gas imports by providing an alternative to the problematic Straits of Malacca.” The ERI report comes just a few days after the junta confirmed that Chinese state-controlled China Non-Ferrous Metal Group will proceed to mine nickel in the Mandalay region. Few details of the agreement have been disclosed. The Myanmarese ministry of mines claimed that the project would provide more than 1,000 jobs for local people. The nickel will be exported to China. ERI says this will become one of the largest mining projects in Myanmar, with investment of US $600 million, financed by Chinese state banks, to mine and export up 40 million tons of nickel ore1.
- 1. “China’s Grip on Burma ‘Cause for Concern’, Irrawaddy, September 30, 2008, at http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=14333&page=1