The Irrawaddy Magazine

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• Shan MP Asks Govt to Cease Army Operations in Northern Shan State
• Shan Farmers Say Gold Mining Is Wrecking Their Land
• Arakan Minister Struggles to Gain Trust of Rohingyas
• Former Thai Army Chief Is ‘Godfather’ to Burma’s Top General
• Press Council Requests Meeting With President, Contacts Parliament
• Burmese Govt Urged to Ring Sirens on Martyrs Day
• A Buddhist Tradition: Boating Through Bago Paddy Fields
• In Thailand, Baby Gender Selection Loophole Draws China, HK Women to IVF Clinics
• China Oil Rig Finishes Exploration in Disputed Waters Off Vietnam
• China and South Korea: ‘Like Mouth and Tongue’
• Risk-Taking and the Road to Peace

Shan MP Asks Govt to Cease Army Operations in Northern Shan State Posted: 16 Jul 2014 05:11 AM PDT SSA-North rebel soldiers in northern Shan State, in June 2013. (Photo: Kyaw Kha / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — A Shan ethnic lawmaker in the Lower House asked the Burmese government on Tuesday to cease military operations in Kyaythee Township in northern Shan State, where several hundred villagers have been displaced after fighting between the Shan State Army-North (SSA-North) and the Burma Army has recently escalated. Sai Um Hseng Mong, an MP with the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP), said he received a letter from his constituents in Kyaythee Township asking him for help in requesting an end to the operations. "A lot of farmers who are there are having problems. They say they could not grow paddy as there is fighting even though it is the paddy-growing season. So they asked me to discuss this issue in Parliament," he said. Sai Um Hseng Mong asked the government to explain the situation in northern Shan State in an urgent parliamentary meeting on Tuesday. Deputy Defense Minister Maj-Gen. Kyaw Nyunt replied that the Burma Army had been holding operations in the area to flush out rebels who had supposedly been reinforcing their troops and recruiting soldiers among local Shan villagers, according to Sai Um Hseng Mong. According to government mouthpiece The New Light of Myanmar, the minister also "explained that the commander-in-chief of the defense services has always strived for regional peace and stability, expressing his understanding that civilians are innocent victims of clashes." The newspaper said Kyaw Nyunt "pledged prompt action by watching [sic] the incident in question closely." It remains unclear what the steps the Defense Ministry, which is directly controlled by a Burma Army general, will do to address the SNDP lawmaker's concerns. More than 200 Shan villagers have been displaced by the fighting in recent weeks and they are hiding in a local monastery, local villagers and aid workers have said. Three weeks after the fighting erupted, tension remains high in the area around Pha Saung village, with government soldiers reportedly still present at the village. The SSA-North is one the largest ethnic armed groups in Shan State, and although it has had a bilateral ceasefire with the Burmese government since 2012 hundreds of skirmishes and clashes have been reported since. The SSA-North has claimed that Burma Army units has attempted to enter rebel-held areas and has taken several rebel bases in recent months. Northern Shan State has also been the scene of frequent clashes and Burma Army operations against Kachin, Palaung and Kokang rebel troops recently. The fighting continues despite the government's publicly stated goal of wanting a nationwide ceasefire with more than a dozen ethnic armed groups, including the SSA-North, in the coming months. The post Shan MP Asks Govt to Cease Army Operations in Northern Shan State appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Shan Farmers Say Gold Mining Is Wrecking Their Land Posted: 16 Jul 2014 04:19 AM PDT Farmers say the Namkham stream, which is the main source of water in the Loi Kham hills, has become shallow and poisoned due to gold mining activities. (Photo: Shan Farmers' Network) Farmers from eastern Shan State's Tachileik Township have called for an immediate end to gold mining operations in the area, which they say are seriously polluting water sources and causing other environmental damage. The ethnic Shan villagers from Na Hai Long, Weng Manaw and Ganna villages in Talay sub-township said that more than 300 acres of farmland can no longer be cultivated due to waste produced by gold-mining companies. A group of the farmers traveled to the Shan State capital of Taunggyi to give a press conference organized by the Shan Farmers' Network on Wednesday. The farmers group said 10 different companies have been carrying out mining there since 2007, with locals receiving only minimal compensation. Although the local government was convinced in mid-April to issue an order to the companies to suspend their activities, mining has continued and companies have allegedly pressured villagers to stop complaining, a statement said. Nang Lar, a farmer from Na Hai Long village told The Irrawaddy the Loi Kham hills have been devastated by gold mining. "We now have no proper farmland to work on," Nang Lar said, adding that the Namkham stream, the main source of water for agriculture in the area, have become shallow as mining waste has been dumped into it. "We have not been able to farm since 2012. Twelve out of my family's 17 acres of farmland have been polluted by the sediment. Our water source is being polluted and the fish even die from the polluted water." She said about 400 villagers from 90 households across the three villages may have to leave for other areas, or to jobs overseas. "My village has been here since my great grandparents. I was born and raised here," said Nang Lar. "I don't want to leave; therefore we are demanding a halt to such mining operations." She added that the mining companies' trucks have badly damaged the road connecting the villages with Tachileik, on the Burmese-Thai border. The post Shan Farmers Say Gold Mining Is Wrecking Their Land appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Arakan Minister Struggles to Gain Trust of Rohingyas Posted: 16 Jul 2014 04:12 AM PDT A 25-year-old Rohingya Muslim sits in front of her hut at a camp outside Sittwe. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — The newly appointed chief minister of Burma's conflict-torn Arakan State appears to be struggling to win the trust of Rohingya Muslims, who continue to live in squalid camps after being driven from their homes in rioting two years ago. Chief Minister Maung Maung Ohn, who is also a general in the armed forces, has met four times with Rohingya community leaders since he was appointed last month. But in that time, he has been unable to convince the Rohingyas to participate in the government's controversial "citizenship verification" scheme, according to state government spokesman Win Myaing. "They are refusing to cooperate," the spokesman told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday. The Arakan State government implemented a pilot project in Myebon Township last month to determine who will qualify to become a naturalized citizen. Many Rohingya families have lived in the country for generations, but they are widely regarded as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh and are mostly denied citizenship by the government. Win Myaing said the international community had pressured Naypyidaw to reconsider their pleas for citizenship. "But we cannot do anything, even though we are trying, because they refuse to cooperate," he said. Rohingya rights activists Aung Win said he believed the government wanted to appease the international community but had little interest in actually granting citizenship to the 1 million or so Rohingya people living in western Burma. "After their work in Myebon, we did not see them grant citizenship to our people," he said. "I believe that even though we agreed to identify as Bengali, they may grant citizenship only to a few of our people." The chief minister, who met most recently with Rohingya leaders on Monday, said applicants would be considered for citizenship only if they identified as Bengali, as they are known by the government. During the nationwide census earlier this year, the government also refused to count anybody who identified as ethnic Rohingya rather than Bengali. Arakan State was torn apart by communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims in 2012. More than 140,000 people were displaced from their homes, and the majority of these were Rohingya Muslims who continue to live today in camps outside the state capital, Sittwe. The post Arakan Minister Struggles to Gain Trust of Rohingyas appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Former Thai Army Chief Is ‘Godfather’ to Burma’s Top General Posted: 16 Jul 2014 03:21 AM PDT Burma Army Commander-in-Chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing (center) is seen with Thai Army chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha (left) and Thai Supreme Commander Gen. Thanasak Patimaprakorn after a meeting at the Royal Thai Army headquarters in Bangkok July 4, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) Burma Army Commander-in-Chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing is the "adopted son" of Thailand's former army chief and adviser to the Thai King, according to a report from the Singapore-based Straits Times. A report Monday noted a recent meeting—and an embrace—between the Burmese military chief and the Thai army's supreme commander, Gen. Thanasak Patimaprakorn, which signaled the close ties between the two countries' armies. During his visit, Min Aung Hlaing gave his approval to the recent military coup in Thailand, saying it was the "army's duty to safeguard national security." However, the Straits Times said, "Today ties [between Burma and Thailand] are far deeper even than the hug suggested." According to the report, the Burmese army chief has been "adopted" by Thailand's former army chief Gen. Prem Tinsulanonda—who reportedly knew Min Aung Hlaing's late father—and the two have a "godfather-godson relationship." "According to Thai media reports, during a visit to Thailand in 2012, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, 58, asked General Prem, a symbol of Thailand's royalist-military elites, to adopt him as his son," the report said. "The 94-year-old Thai general, who has no children of his own, agreed." The Burmese general and Prem, who is president of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej's Privy Council, have met at least three times in recent years, in January 2012, May 2013 and July 2014, it said. While currently serving at the top of Burma's military—which officially handed power to civilian leaders in 2011 but retains a constitutionally protected role in politics—Min Aung Hlaing has been touted as a future political leader, either from within the army or without. Sources close to the President's Office say the commander in chief will step down in May 2015, ahead of parliamentary elections expected in late 2015 and the likely appointment of a new president in March 2016. It is not known whether he will contend the presidency, but recent reports in Thailand also suggest another major Thai political player considered Min Aung Hlaing worth courting. According to the Bangkok-based newspaper The Nation, a recent leaked phone conversation involving two people close to former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra revealed that the self-exiled Thai leader has attempted to forge close ties with Min Aung Hlaing. "The pair discussed how Thaksin believed that Min Aung Hlaing was a powerful figure in Myanmar and could pave the way for Thai investment in the country, notably the Dawei economic zone," The Nation reported earlier this month, with reference to the stalled project to build a trading hub in the Tenasserim Division town from where Min Aung Hlaing hails. The former Thai premier has paid several visits to Burma since 2011, and last year posted a photo on his Facebook page, purportedly taken in Maymyo, of himself celebrating Buddhist New Year with Min Aung Hlaing. The post Former Thai Army Chief Is 'Godfather' to Burma's Top General appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Press Council Requests Meeting With President, Contacts Parliament Posted: 16 Jul 2014 12:18 AM PDT Journals for sale in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — The Interim Myanmar Press Council said it has requested a meeting with President Thein Sein to discuss the growing threat to media freedom in Burma, while it has also sent letters to several Lower House committees asking lawmakers to look into the situation. Thiha Saw, a council member, said the organization wanted to see the president soon in order to discuss Burma's deteriorating media climate. "We have requested a meeting before the end of the month," he said. Thiha Saw said the council had contacted the Lower House Judicial Committee, the Sports, Culture and Public Relations Development Committee and the Rule of Law Committee. The latter committee is chaired by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He said the council approached the committees as they can question the judiciary over the authorities' recent actions against journalists. "We sent letters to those parliamentary committees that can summon MPs, judges and members of the judiciary, in order to [ask] help in solving the actions taken against media," he said. The council also plans to write a letter to Union Parliament Speaker Shwe Mann asking his help with arranging a meeting with the president, Thiha Saw added. Last week, the CEO and four journalists from the Unity Journal were sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment with hard labor on charges of trespassing and violating the colonial-era State Secrets Act, after they wrote a report alleging that the Burma Army was building a chemical weapons plant in Magwe Division's Pakkoku Township. The harsh sentences have drawn local and international condemnation and media freedom advocates have pointed out that they are contradictory to the recently passed Press Law, which rules out prison sentences for journalists found to have broken the law in their work. The press council has repeatedly said that authorities have ignored the council during recent cases against journalists, despite the fact that the Press Law stipulates that any legal dispute involving a journalist should be mediated by the council first. On Saturday, dozens of journalists covering Thein Sein's visit to the Myanmar Peace Center in Rangoon wore t-shirts protesting against the sentence and were then barred from entering the center. When they held a spontaneous silent gathering outside the center, police decided to charge about 50 reporters for holding an unauthorized protest, which can carry up to 3 months imprisonment under the Peaceful Assembly Act. Officers said they are currently investigating the case and identifying reporters. The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP) said in a statement Wednesday that the case against the Unity Journal is in direct contravention of Thein Sein's promises to allow for greater political and media freedoms. "We have to question why political charges … are being used against the media when the president has made public promises in his radio speeches that they will no longer arrest people on political charges like they did before," Tate Naing of AAPP told The Irrawaddy. "Ten years' imprisonment is too much and it's not fair on journalists," he said, adding that the AAPP—which has long supported Burma's political prisoners—had not decided whether to classify the imprisoned Unity journalists as prisoners of conscience. Amnesty International said in a statement on Friday that it considered the five men political prisoners. In recent months, Burmese authorities have been stepping up harassment of journalists. In June, three editors from Bi-Mon Tae Nay Journal were charged with defamation after publishing a front page story on a statement by the Myanmar Democracy Continuous Force that falsely claimed that Suu Kyi had formed an interim government. In recent weeks, officers of the Special Branch Police have been making visits to private newspapers, supposedly to look into the financial records of the publications. Media representatives have said the actions serve to intimidate the media organizations, which have only been able to publish in relative freedom in Burma after junta-era draconian restrictions were gradually lifted in 2012. The post Press Council Requests Meeting With President, Contacts Parliament appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burmese Govt Urged to Ring Sirens on Martyrs Day Posted: 15 Jul 2014 10:47 PM PDT Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi attends a ceremony in Rangoon marking the anniversary of Martyrs' Day in 2012. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — Civil society groups are calling on the Burmese government to resume a tradition of broadcasting a ringing siren on the morning of Martyrs' Day, an annual holiday that falls this year on Saturday, to honor the country's independence hero. State-owned radio stations once broadcast sirens for about one minute each year on July 19 at 10: 37 am, to mark the moment when Gen. Aung San and his comrades were assassinated by gunmen during a cabinet meeting in 1947. But the tradition was dropped by the former military regime, which sought to downplay the legacy of Aung San, whose daughter is opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Last year, opposition lawmakers called for a resumption of the siren ringing, but the government rejected the proposal, saying the noise could lead to traffic accidents. Instead, civil society groups launched a campaign to encourage citizens to play sirens on their own. This year, 20 civil society groups on Tuesday urged the government to resume the broadcast of sirens on state media, to allow people to play sirens on their own, and to publish profiles of the martyrs on the days leading up to the holiday. They also called on President Thein Sein to attend a Martyrs' Day ceremony along with Parliament speakers and the commander-in-chief. "We sent the requests to the president, the President's Office and Parliament," Thiha Maung Maung, one of the campaigners, told The Irrawaddy. "If the government does not approve our proposal, they are essentially forbidding Martyrs' Day." After the 1988 popular uprising against the military regime, the government downgraded the ceremonies on Martyrs' Day and declared that the martyrs' mausoleum would be off-limits to ordinary people, fearing a public gathering at the burial site would spark more unrest. Thereafter, the only visible commemoration on July 19 was the state flag flying at half-past. But since Thein Sein took office in 2011, some of the decades-long Martyrs' Day traditions seem to have been resurrected. The quasi-civilian government has allowed some public tributes at the mausoleum, and in 2012 government officials attended a state-level ceremony to mark the holiday for the first time in five decades. "Last year we played sirens in some places and vehicles honked out on the roads. I hope this year we can celebrate more widely," D Nyein Linn, a member of the All Burma Federation of Student Union, told reporters on Tuesday. Some tech-savvy Burmese are downloading an application for their mobile phones that will play a mournful siren for two minutes at 10:37 on July 19, followed by a popular song honoring Martyrs' Day. Ethnic minorities also plan to give speeches to share their feelings on the holiday, according to Salai David from the Ethnic Youths Development Center. The President's Office was not available to comment on whether the president, Parliament speakers and the commander-in-chief would attend the ceremony on Martyrs' Day. The post Burmese Govt Urged to Ring Sirens on Martyrs Day appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

A Buddhist Tradition: Boating Through Bago Paddy Fields Posted: 15 Jul 2014 05:29 PM PDT People throw water during the Kamae Phyin Bo Bo Gyi festival. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) KA WA, Bago Division — Once every year, this sleepy provincial town in Bago Division sees a throng of visitors. Under cloudy skies on the Full Moon Day of Waso, thousands of Buddhists from Rangoon and the divisional capital Bago descend upon the town of Ka Wa to pay homage to Khamae Pyin Bo Bo Gyi, a local guardian spirit long believed to offer blessings of safety, prosperity and good health. The town is about 22 miles from Bago, and when visitors arrive for the holiday, they look forward to another joyous activity: throwing water at each other during a boat-ride through flooded paddy fields on the way to the guardian spirit's shrine. Though the shrine is accessible by road, young people especially prefer to park their cars along the road a few miles away. Instead of driving, they hire small wooden boats to navigate the fields that are already overflowing with monsoon rains, playfully splashing each other along the way. "As far as I'm concerned, there is no specific relation between the festival and water throwing," one of the festival-goers explained during the boat trip. "You are on a boat, around you there is lot of water and people. We throw water at each other just for fun," he said. Another young girl chimed in: "That's why we left our car beside the road!" The post A Buddhist Tradition: Boating Through Bago Paddy Fields appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

In Thailand, Baby Gender Selection Loophole Draws China, HK Women to IVF Clinics Posted: 15 Jul 2014 10:09 PM PDT A woman works with human genetic material at a laboratory in Munich. (Photo: Reuters) SYDNEY/BANGKOK — At 26, with a baby daughter, a Hong Kong mother and her husband wanted a second child. To make sure it would be a boy, they paid US$9,000 and flew to Thailand, the last place in Asia where gender selection treatment is available and breaks no law. "In Chinese tradition, a girl and a boy means good, perfect," said the mother, who requested anonymity. "There's nothing wrong with girls, but in Hong Kong and Chinese tradition all families like boys." The mother is one of hundreds of women from mainland China, Hong Kong and Australia who visit Bangkok each year for in vitro fertilization (IVF) with the option of choosing the child's gender by discarding fertilized eggs, or embryos, of the unwanted sex. The only other countries where the technique is permitted and available are the United States and South Africa—in both cases at a higher financial cost. The dozen or so clinics that offer the service in Bangkok say it gives parents the chance to "balance" the genders in their growing families, but medical authorities want the practice banned. The Medical Council of Thailand, an independent agency that supervises the country's medical system, says it could encourage embryo trafficking. Still, its efforts to stop IVF gender selection have been complicated by a number of factors. It has no powers to prevent clinics providing the service because there is no law governing its practice in Thailand. Despite years of lobbying, the issue has remained low on the list of political priorities for successive governments—a point underlined by Thailand's latest political upheaval and military coup. In standard IVF practice, a woman's eggs are removed and fertilized before being returned to the womb. In gender selection IVF, only embryos of the desired gender are implanted, a practice mostly shunned amid concerns about couples making a choice on the right to life based on gender. "Sex selection for non-medical reasons is not encouraged, but neither is it prohibited in the US, according to the latest guidelines," the American Medical Association says on its Website. As in Thailand, South Africa currently has no legal provision governing the technique. The business is estimated to be worth about $150 million last year, according to one Hong Kong agent who organizes gender selection packages. Demand is growing about 20 percent a year, some Thai providers told Reuters, with the number of clinics rising to meet it. In Limbo With Parliament dissolved since last December and an army government now in power, calls for legislation remain in limbo. Thailand's Health Ministry referred questions to the Royal Thai College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the only agency in the country which gathers specialized information about IVF treatment. Prof. Clin. Wiboolphan Thitadilok, president of the college, said the agency is working on a fresh set of recommendations on IVF treatment in general. "We have worked to put this issue into law for more than 10 years" she told Reuters. "It's not an issue that politicians will pay much attention to." Thailand now has 44 IVF clinics in total, with seven new facilities opened last year and two or three applications for new clinics being submitted every month, according to the college. The Asian country has become the go-to destination for Chinese couples not willing to leave the gender of their baby to chance. They pay fees that can run close to $30,000 in some cases for packages including a cycle of treatment lasting two to three weeks. 10,000 Treatments a Year Alfred Siu Wing-fung, a Hong Kong agent selling Bangkok gender selection packages to about 200 Chinese couples a year, said as well as people from poorer rural areas his business, Eden Hospitality, had strong demand from wealthy professionals wanting certainty about their offspring. Siu estimates about 10,000 gender selection cycles were carried out in Bangkok last year, at an average cost of $15,000 per treatment. While medical equipment and drugs are imported, clinics are staffed mostly by Thai doctors and nurses trained overseas. He offers two packages: 280,000 Thai baht ($8,700) for a basic service including flights and accommodation, and 900,000 baht ($27,800) for VIP treatment, including nannies and catering. Interest is growing in Australia, where gender selection treatment is unavailable. Dr Robert Woolcott, director of Genea Ltd, the third-largest IVF company in Australia, said Genea routinely recommends that couples wishing to choose the gender of their baby visit Bangkok's Superior A.R.T. (for Assisted Reproductive Technology), a clinic it partly owns. Overall, Australians numbering "in the hundreds per year" travel to Thailand for gender selection, Woolcott told Reuters. Back in Hong Kong, the mother, now 28 with a healthy 18-month-old son, is planning for her third child. She probably won't go back to Bangkok. "I think the third one should be natural," she said. The post In Thailand, Baby Gender Selection Loophole Draws China, HK Women to IVF Clinics appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

China Oil Rig Finishes Exploration in Disputed Waters Off Vietnam Posted: 15 Jul 2014 10:00 PM PDT A crewman from the Vietnamese coastguard ship 8003 looks out at sea as Chinese coastguard vessels give chase to Vietnamese ships that came close to the Haiyang Shiyou 981, known in Vietnam as HD-981, oil rig in the South China Sea, on July 15, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) SHANGHAI/HANOI — A Chinese oil rig has finished drilling near the disputed Paracel islands in the South China Sea after finding signs of oil and gas, a top Chinese energy firm said on Wednesday, more than two months after its deployment hurt ties with Vietnam. Vietnam's coastguard said the $1 billion deepwater rig was being moved toward China's southernmost island province of Hainan. China's official Xinhua news agency said it would be relocated to an area off Hainan but gave no details or a date. The rig's relocation could reduce tensions between the two neighbors and will also likely be welcomed by Washington, which has accused China of "provocative" actions in the disputed South China Sea in recent months. Hanoi has said the rig was in its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone and on its continental shelf. Beijing has said it was operating completely within its waters around the Paracel islands, which China occupy. China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the dominant oil and gas producer in China, said in a statement the rig "smoothly completed" its drilling on Tuesday and found signs of oil and gas. The next step would be to analyze the geological data and evaluate the layers of oil and gas, it said. CNPC's preliminary analysis showed "the area has the basic conditions and potential for oil exploration, but extraction testing cannot begin before a comprehensive assessment of the data," Xinhua quoted Wang Zhen, deputy director of the CNPC Policy Research Office, as saying. China had previously said the rig was scheduled to explore the waters around the Paracels until mid-August. It was not clear why it had finished one month ahead of schedule, although Xinhua said July was the beginning of the typhoon season. Admiral Ngo Ngoc Thu, chief of staff of the Vietnam coastguard, told Reuters by telephone the rig was about 30 nautical miles from Triton island in the Paracels and had been moving toward Hainan since late on Tuesday night. Thu said Vietnamese boats were still watching the area closely. Deployment of the rig on May 2 set off deadly anti-Chinese riots in Vietnam, while scores of Vietnamese and Chinese ships have regularly squared off around the platform. There have been several collisions. A Reuters reporter on a Vietnamese coastguard vessel on Tuesday witnessed a group of Chinese ships chase the Vietnamese boat away from the area in what has been a near daily cat-and-mouse routine. The rig is owned by state-run China National Offshore Oil Company Group (CNOOC Group), parent of flagship unit CNOOC Ltd. Potential for Production China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also claim parts of the waters, whose estimated energy potential varies widely. Discoveries near the coasts of Southeast Asian countries in recent years have been mostly natural gas, reinforcing the belief among geologists and explorers that there is more gas than oil in the South China Sea. Chinese industry experts have said the rig had a good chance of finding enough gas to put the area into production. That would give China its first viable energy field in the disputed South China Sea, as well as make it a source of friction with Hanoi for years to come. The world's largest energy user imports nearly 60 percent of its oil needs and more than 30 percent of its natural gas. In a 2013 report, the US Energy Information Administration, a government agency, said geological evidence suggested the Paracel islands themselves did not have significant potential in terms of conventional hydrocarbons. However, the chance of making a major gas discovery near the islands was high because there had been several gas finds already in the area, experts have said. Vietnam has two fields to the left of where the rig had been stationed, much closer to its coast, where US giant Exxon Mobil Corp discovered oil and gas in 2011 and 2012. Some energy production is taking place in the South China Sea but deepwater areas remain untapped, largely because tensions between rival claimants have made oil companies and private oil service companies reluctant to explore contentious acreage well away from sovereign coastlines. Additional reporting by Reuters reporter Ben Blanchard in Beijing. The post China Oil Rig Finishes Exploration in Disputed Waters Off Vietnam appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

China and South Korea: ‘Like Mouth and Tongue’ Posted: 15 Jul 2014 09:47 PM PDT Chinese President Xi Jinping smiles during a meeting with South Korean National Assembly speaker Chung Ui-hwa at the National Assembly in Seoul July 4, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) Beijing is losing patience with its troublesome client state North Korea, demonstrated by Xi Jinping's visit to Seoul at the start of this month before ever stepping on North Korean soil so far in his presidency or extending an invitation to Pyongyang's leader Kim Jong-un to visit Beijing. In a telling exchange, Tian Guoli, chairman of the Bank of China, who was along for the trip, described China and Korea as "close neighbors like a mouth and tongue." That is almost a blasphemous reworking of Mao Zedong's famed words defining the partnership with the North Korean ally—as like "lips and teeth." That doesn't mean Beijing is going to give up on a client state that has served as a useful buffer blocking US influence for more than five decades. During the Korean War (1950-1953), China sided with the North, losing 114,000 soldiers in action with another 70,000 dying of wounds. Some 25,000 remain missing, a total loss of more than 200,000 of China's young men. Nonetheless, the Chinese leader was obviously courting a potential ally and isolating the US, renewing and empowering bilateral exchanges and launching a public attack on the rebellious North. Without bothering with the traditional flattery doled out to Pyongyang by past Chinese leaders, Xi met his counterpart Park Geun-hye without ever acknowledging the North. Moreover, it was the second meeting by Park and Xi since the Korean head of state visited China the previous summer. Kim Jong-un, who took over the country at his father’s death two years ago, has yet to receive an official invitation from Beijing. a potent snub, given the longstanding relationships between the two countries. Today Pyongyang is deeply connected to Beijing for 90 percent of its economy, but the reopening of nuclear programs and the latest North Korean missile provocations right before Xi’s visit to the south definitely cooled Beijing towards its protégé. Therefore although diplomatic relations with Seoul date back only to the 1990s, the ROK and the PRC are getting closer to the eventual pursuit of a common objective: denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. Still, if the objective is clear, agreement on the methods is not, with China impatient for a reopening of the six-party talks in limbo since 2009, while South Korea and the US demand serious signs of the north's goodwill in dropping any atomic ambition. Around mid-June, Liu Jianchao, an aide to the Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister, pointed out that there is no military alliance between China and North Korea. However, there is deep concern that a stricter attitude towards the fragile and impoverished Kim regime might cause it to implode, with a subsequent massive wave of refugees crossing the border into China. The Chinese dragon is committed maintaining the trading relations that keep the North afloat. Sanctions aside, Beijing has promised three high-speed railway lines connecting northeastern Chinese cities to the "last iron curtain," with millions of dollars allocated to border-area bridges and street projects, along with the first cross-border power lines. The state-owned Chinese press agency Xinhua commented recently on events: "The crucial point of the current situation in the Korean peninsula depends on mutual mistrust and hatred between the US and the DPRK. The counterproductive obsession of Washington for sanctions and intimidation, and the understandable feeling of insecurity in Pyongyang, as well as the pointless violations to the UN’s resolutions, only managed to aggravate the hostilities." Washington thus seems to have been the real "stone guest" in Xi’s two-day visit to Seoul as Beijing seeks to reorganize the system of alliances that the Unites States has built in the region. The circumstances look excellent, given the increased understanding with South Korea – which still hosts about 30,000 US troops. There is also common impatience about Washington’s most important Asia-Pacific ally, Japan, and its growing militarism. There is continuing anger over Japanese WWII atrocities. Added to that, Japan is revising its pacifist constitution, stirring concern in both Beijing and Seoul. Aside from that there is the rapprochement between Japan and North Korea over the ancient issue of kidnapped Japanese citizens. The Japanese government relaxed some sanctions inflicted on Pyongyang after the third nuclear test in exchange for a re-examination of the case. Luckily for Beijing, relations between Seoul and Tokyo continue rocky, sometimes taking unforeseen turns as in 2010, when 37 members of the South Korean parliament created a forum to promote territorial claims on the Japanese island of Tsushima (Daema-do in Korean). Seoul also has issues with Tokyo over the Dokdo/Takeshima islands, militarily occupied by Seoul in 1952. Japan claims them as part of the district of Oki, belonging to the town of Okinoshima. Still, even after decades of American reminders, Seoul’s defense expenses are still only 2.5-3 percent of GDP, basically making South Korea a "vassal depending upon the US" according to author Edward Luttwak. The great hostility of the South Korean left wing towards an increased military budget rules out any short-run reinvigoration of the army. This doesn’t mean relations between Beijing and Seoul are obstacle- free. Although there are no particularly urgent loose ends, the proximity of South Korea to the troubled waters of the South China Sea could easily lead to incidents. In 2011 a South Korean Coast Guardsman was killed and another seriously injured in a fight with Chinese fishermen over illegal activities in South Korean waters. More recently, China announced without previous notice an Air Defense Identification Zone that overlaps ones from Seoul and Tokyo, triggering irritation from South Korea, which promptly expanded its own ADIZ to reach the disputed waters around the submerged rock known as Ieodo in Korean and Suyan in Mandarin. The timing was crucial since Beijing's the unilateral move came just months after the first meeting between Xi and Park, greeted by experts as a "significant step forward in bilateral relations." Even if the Japanese historical revisionism ended up bringing South Korea and China closer, some schoolbooks still upset relations. These are frictions dating back to the beginning of the last century when China claimed some Korean dynasties were mere offshoots of their own Chinese ones. Recently Beijing expressed its displeasure at Washington’s proposal to provide South Korea with a new advanced missilistic defense system, officially conceived to contrast possible attacks from the North, but by implication meant to respond to China's growing military aggressiveness. Seoul announced it would decide once the official proposal has been received from the US. Even against these disagreements, the popular perception is that bilateral relations are progressing well. According to a survey published last week by Korea's Joongang Daily, only 34.89 percent of South Korean adults believe the People’s Republic of China would take North Korea's side if a second Korean War broke out. In 2012, during Lee Myung-bak's administration, 75.9 percent of Koreans surveyed believed China would back Pyongyang. As in every partnership, what keeps parts together is business. In a July 4 speech at the Seoul National University, Xi invited the ROK to "forge together a new community of shared interests." Bilateral exchanges reached US$270 billion last year, more than the combined South Korea total with the US and Japan. The ROK is thus growing more dependent on Beijing, its first commercial partner for human resources and exports. Samsung’s recent decision to invest US$7 billion to build a research center in Xi’an signifies South Korea’s interest in China's growing middle class, deeply interested in quality brands. Jin Bosong, researcher of the Ministry of Economy, pointed at the potential of a "marriage" between South Korean electronics and Chinese e-commerce and e-business, of which Alibaba and Baidu are by now world leaders. Xi travelled with Alibaba's Jack Ma and Baidu's Li Yanhong. He was also accompanied by the presidents of China Telecom, China Unicom and the Bank of China, in what was defined as the most impressive business forum ever held between the two Asian nations, with 500 officials and representatives of the main societies from both countries. Of 12 cooperative agreements, the most valuable was direct trading between the two local currencies, a great step forward towards internationalization of the yuan, with the promise of closing of negotiations for a free trade agreement, a first step towards an FTA expanded with Japan's participation. Alessandra Colarizi is an Italian sinologist and is the co-founder at L’Indro. She is also an editor and translator for China Files. The post China and South Korea: 'Like Mouth and Tongue' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Risk-Taking and the Road to Peace Posted: 15 Jul 2014 05:00 PM PDT Risk-taking is necessary for peace, but a risk-averse mentality often overshadows peace processes. A case in point is the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, where disputants on both sides are unwilling to take risks for peace. But in Myanmar, if we want to lay a firm foundation to the peace process, we have no choice but to take unavoidable risks. Especially now, Myanmar is on the verge of signing a historic Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA). We are right at the threshold of the political dialogue that everyone has desired for decades to "resolve political problems through political means." We just need to go the extra mile to reach the finish line. Looking back, we could not have come this far in the peace process if all parties involved were not committed and courageous enough to take risks. But in the past, risk aversion was common. A ceasefire often is a prerequisite for peace talks, so in 2006 I urged a late leader of the Karen National Union (KNU) with whom I was friendly to declare a unilateral ceasefire with the Myanmar military government. Given the hostilities on both sides, I knew such a move would go nowhere. But I reckoned the KNU would politically benefit from taking the initiative because I thought it was unlikely for the military government to respond to the KNU's proposal in kind. I might have been wrong, but if the military government responded positively to the KNU's suggestion of détente, I thought it might herald a change of direction in Myanmar's armed conflict. In short, there was nothing to lose for the KNU and something to gain for peace. But the KNU leader told me that it would be impossible for the KNU to embark on such a path unilaterally. He would not even think about it, let alone raise such an idea with the KNU leadership. I understood why he was reluctant to do so—it posed a huge risk for him, personally and institutionally. He would be labeled a coward. Worse still, if he did not lose his political standing within his own organization, he would likely be called a traitor and accused of selling out to the enemy. He simply could not take the risk because the cost to him would most likely outweigh any benefit gained. And the timing was not conducive. I proposed the idea at a time when the KNU viewed ceasefires by ethnic armed groups, such as the one between the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the military regime, with contempt and suspicion. It was also a time when Myanmar military leaders refused to negotiate politics, maintaining that such talks could be held only with the "political government." But largely, ceasefires of any kind and peace agreements pose huge risks for all parties involved, especially non-state armed groups. In Myanmar, ceasefires were considered a weakness by ethnic armed groups, rather than a necessary entry point to a peace process and eventually to peace. And in times of intense conflict, the talk of a ceasefire was met with pure cynicism. Organizationally, too, it would be an enormous task to convince battle-hardened soldiers and commanders of the need for a strategy shift. It was not that the KNU did not want peace. They had held talks with the military government on many occasions. In 2004, the late KNU leader Gen. Saw Bo Mya even visited Yangon and met with the then military intelligence chief, Gen. Khin Nyunt. Ultimately, however, deep-rooted distrust and a refusal of the military government to go into political dialogue to settle differences—the KNU's constant demand—saw the end of all peace overtures. But in 2012, the political landscape in Myanmar was transformed. Earlier in 2011, President U Thein Sein invited ethnic armed groups to pursue peace. The Shan State Army-South (SSA-S) had already inked a ceasefire deal with the new Myanmar "political government" by November 2011. Amid confusion and infighting, the KNU took a huge risk and signed an armistice with the government in January 2012. And that risk has rendered incredible peace dividends, as the ceasefire has held in KNU-controlled areas—with only a few minor glitches. And the KNU have continued to take risks. They have met five times with the president and the chief of Myanmar's armed forces. Such meetings pose huge risks, both personally and institutionally, for KNU leaders, government officials and Myanmar army leaders. But with each risk taken, more trust is gained and the realization grows that peace can be within reach. Likewise, all 14 ceasefires signed between the government and ethnic armed group have involved varying degrees of risk for concerned parties. The risks are numerous, particularly at this stage where the long-awaited political dialogue may depend on the capacity of all protagonists to wrap up the NCA talks at the earliest time possible. While larger ethnic groups face internal dissent due to the prolonged peace process, smaller groups are at greater risk. Similarly, there are risks for the Myanmar government in a delayed process, both domestically and internationally. Understandably, risk aversion remains strong in the Myanmar peace process. This is rooted in long-held ideological thinking and psychological fear in a classic conflict resolution sense. But there is strong commitment all around to move on with the peace process no matter what happens. There is also strong domestic and international pressure to focus on the peace process and to not go back to war if a deal is not possible in the foreseeable future. On June 30, Minister U Aung Min, the Myanmar government's chief negotiator, spoke to reporters following the introduction of a bill to the Upper House of Parliament in support of the peace process. "In some countries, negotiators leave the table if a deal is not reached, and then there will be a resumption of hostilities," he said. "But here in Myanmar, everyone has made up his mind not to leave the negotiating table. I call it a success." All stakeholders know in their hearts that no one gains from continuing conflict. But risk aversion may block some protagonists from seeing the bigger picture. Risk-taking is an integral part of the peace process. And the status quo is not good enough for Myanmar. It is imperative for all stakeholders to make the extra effort, to go the last mile, on a nationwide ceasefire so that we can soon traverse a road to political dialogue. Aung Naing Oo is the associate director of the Peace Dialogue Program at the Myanmar Peace Center. Opinions expressed here are his only. The post Risk-Taking and the Road to Peace appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

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