Myanmar’s drug ‘exports’ to China test ties

09:36 Myanmar’s drug ‘exports’ to China test ties 0 Comments

Myanmar’s drug ‘exports’ to China test ties: "Prior to slipping into his role as a legislator, the 51-year-old Kyaw Myint was better known as a junta-backed militia chief “notorious among local people as a drug dealer in the Shan State North’s Namkham township”, reveals the Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN), a media organization run by journalists from Myanmar’s Shan ethnic minority.

“Many ferry crossings on the Ruli River that serve as a boundary between China and Myanmar are guarded by Kyaw Htwe [also known as Li Yonping], younger brother of Kyaw Myint,” adds SHAN.

Yet this political identity for Kyaw Myint, with the junta’s blessings, will test the growing economic bonds between Myanmar and its giant northeastern neighbor China. According to official figures released by Myanmese officials, China has pumped in over US$8 billion in foreign direct investment this year to tap Myanmar’s resource-rich environment.

The investments by Chinese state-run companies in the oil and gas, hydropower and mining sectors mark a dramatic increase from what Chinese investments were five years ago – some $194 million.

“Myanmar and China have grown closer over the past four years and Beijing is on the verge of displacing Thailand as the country that tops investment in Myanmar,” says a Southeast Asian diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity."

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