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BURMA: China's Thirst for Oil Ignores Environment, Rights
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Oct 31 (IPS) - The largest island off Burma’s west coast is emerging as another frontier for China’s expanding plans to extract the rich oil and gas reserves of military-ruled Burma.
Initial explorations by a consortium, led by China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC), has left a deep scar on Ramree Island, which is twice the size of Singapore and home to about 400,000 people. ‘’They
have destroyed rice fields and plantations when conducting the seismic surveys and mining the island in search of oil,’’ says Jockai Khaing, director of Arakan Oil Watch (AOW), an environmental group made up of Burmese living in exile.
‘’The local communities have been directly and indirectly affected,’’ he Said during an IPS interview. ‘’Hundreds of people have been forced to relocate as a result of the drilling conducted near their communities. The locals hate the Chinese; their world has become crazy after the
Chinese arrived.’’
CNOOC has been pushing ahead with its work since early 2005, with no attempt to consult the local residents and showing little regard to such notions as
corporate social responsibility, adds Jockai. The Chinese company, which
is listed on the New York and the Hong Kong stock exchanges, has ‘’not
conducted the required environmental impact assessments and social
impact assessments that are recognised internationally as a must before
exploration work begins.’’
To dispose the waste from its drilling sites, ‘’CNOOC workers dug shallow
canals designed to carry the (toxic) ‘drilling mud,’ or wastewater
containing oil, away from the drilling sites and into Chaing Wa Creek,
which curves past several local farms before flowing into the Bay of
Bengal,’’ states a report by AOW, released in mid-October. ‘’This
arbitrary disposal can make soil in surrounding areas unsuitable for
plant growth by reducing the availability of nutrients or by increasing
toxic contents in the soil.’’
Concerns about the cost of letting China tighten its grip on the natural
resources in Burma (or Myanmar) has also been expressed by other groups,
like EarthRights International (EI), a U.S.-based group championing
human rights. There are 69 Chinese companies involved in 90 ‘’completed,
current and planned projects’’ in the oil, gas and hydropower sectors in
Burma, EI revealed in groundbreaking report released in late September.
That number marks an over 200 percent increase in the number of Chinese
energy developers thought to have had existed a year before. ‘’Given
what we know about development projects in Burma and the current
situation, we’re concerned about this marked increase in the number of
the projects,’’ the rights lobby stated in the report, ‘China in Burma:
The Increasing Involvement of Chinese Multinational Corporations in
Burma’s Hydropower, Oil and Natural Gas, and Mining Sectors.
‘’China is using Burma’s military dictatorship to its advantage as it
goes in search of oil and gas. There are no rules and regulations for
Chinese companies to follow in Burma,’’ Ka Hsaw Wa, executive director
of EI, said in an IPS interview. ‘’This will hurt the future of Burma.’’
Such criticisms come at a time when China has begun to show signs that the
environment cost of its projects abroad cannot be ignored. ‘’The country
lacked comprehensive environmental protection policies in its overseas
projects, although investment had been expanding,’’ states a report
released in mid-September by the Chinese Academy for Environmental
Planning (CAEP), according to the ‘China Daily’ newspaper.
‘’China’s overseas investment and aid mainly focuses on exploring oil
and other resources, processing and manufacturing, and construction in
African and Southeast Asian countries,’’ the English-language daily
added. ‘’Without proper management, such projects are likely to cause
environmental problems, the (CAEP) report said.’’
Burma, in fact, will prove to be an ideal testing ground, given that
China emerged as the military-ruled country’s biggest investor in the
country’s power sector. The money flowing in from such foreign direct
investments and the sale of gas has helped to prop up a junta notorious
for suppressing its people through many forms of abuse.
In 2006, the junta earned an estimated 2.16 billion U.S. dollars from
sales of natural gas to Thailand, which accounts for close to half of
Burma’s export earnings and is the single largest source of foreign
earnings. In 2008, Burma is expected to earn 3.5 billion US dollars
from export of gas, according to one estimate.
But little of these benefits trickled down to the country’s beleaguered people. Consequently, Burma ranks as one of the world’s least developed countries. And having an abundance of natural resources has not improved the power supply in the country for the people either. Regular blackouts are frequent in Rangoon, the former capital, and elsewhere.
The junta has profited in other ways, too, from China’s energy interest in Burma. ‘’Beijing has come to the junta’s rescue and protects it from criticism at international forums like the U.N. Security Council,’’ says Win Min, a Burmese national security expert teaching at a university in northern Thailand. ‘’A strong relationship of mutual benefit has developed since 1988.’’
In exchange for letting Chinese companies exploit its natural resources, the Burmese dictatorship has got military hardware from Beijing. They range from fighter jets and armoured carriers to small weapons, Win Min told IPS. ‘’The junta will open the country to China because the military regime needs Beijing more than the other way around.’’
(END/2008)
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