Interessant bericht in de Global Times, de nieuwe stem van Peking naar de buitenwereld. Het blad (zie onderstaand verhaal) nagelt -in enigszins verdekte zinsneden, maar toch- het Birmaanse leger aan de schandpaal. Een paar weken geleden was er opeens een exodus van etnische Chinezen uit Birma, over de grens naar de Chinese provincie Yunnan, na schermutselingen tussen een lokale militie in de Kokang-regio, onderdeel van de vanouds weerbarstige Shan-grensstreek van Birma. De reportage in de Global Times verhaalt dat Birmaanse soldaten stevig aan het plunderen sloegen in de winkels en hotel/casino’s van Chinese ondernemers in het gebied. Peking riep toen de vluchtelingenstroom de grens overstak het bevriende generaalsregime van Rangoon wel tot de orde, maar repte niet van wangedrag van het leger. Nu laat het via de Global Times alsnog zijn ongenoegen daarover kennen. Zou het Peking een zetje in de rug geven om de generaals voortaan wat minder als vrienden te beschouwen? Eens kijken wat de Chinese leiding belangrijker vindt: de economische belangen van Peking’s grote staatsbedrijven in Birma, of het lot van de kleine Chinese ondernemers die met de brutaliteit van de generaals mochten kennis maken. By Hao Zhou Zhao Fa, 26, a taxi driver in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, is going to take two local businessmen to Xishuangbanna, a paradise for worldwide travelers in Yunnan's Dai Autonomous Prefecture, from Nansan, where tens of thousands of Myanmar residents took shelter during three days of infighting in the Kokang region of the country. "A single journey from Nansan to Xishuangbanna will take them more than 10 hours and cost 2,800 yuan ($410)," Zhao told the Global Times. "Or they could stay behind and do nothing in Nansan." Five years ago, Zhao opened a grocery store in Laukkai (Laojie in Chinese), the center and the most prosperous business street of the Kokang region, also known as the First Special Region of northeast Myanmar's Shan State. He then bought a used car for his business. "Before the friction between Myanmar government forces and Kokang's ethnic militia, I was able to earn at least 100,000 yuan ($14,650) a year by exporting cigarettes and wine to Laukkai from the Chinese mainland," Zhao said. "But now (after the conflict) I have lost my business and left all my goods, valued at around 80,000 yuan, in Laukkai," Zhao said with a deep sigh. "I had no other way to make money but use my car as a taxi to bring people in and out of Nansan." As Zhao hurriedly finished his 7-yuan ($1) lunch, his cell phone rang. His ring tone is an old Chinese pop song named Kiss Goodbye by Jacky Cheung. Zhao has had to kiss his five-year business goodbye in Kokang and find a new life somewhere else. According to official statistics, around 37,000 northern Myanmar residents living in the Kokang region flocked to China's Yunnan Province during the fighting between Myanmar government forces and Kokang militia troops. However, there was no exact figure about the influx of Chinese businesspeople from Kokang, fleeing the conflict. Before the fiercest fighting in Kokang in the last 20 years, the special region in the northern Myanmar border area – notorious as an area of gambling and drug trafficking – had an approximate population of 200,000. As many as 90 percent of the Kokang ethnic group are Han Chinese, and more than 100,000 Chinese nationals were involved in businesses, such as selling cell phones, household appliances, clothes and flowers, as well as pawnshops and cafes, much like the Chinatowns in many Western countries. Looting took place after the fighting, with many Chinese shops, mainly groceries and garment stores, allegedly broken into by Myanmar government troops who robbed all the merchandise. Every morning between August 29 and September 2, between 6 and 9 am, some 25 China-made Dongfeng trucks belonging to Myanmar military forces transported the loot out of Kokang from Dongcheng, a newly emerged commercial area of Kokang, a witness told the Global Times by telephone on condition of anonymity. The source in Laukkai added that the looting has become less frequent since September 3, but fears still haunt Chinese businesspeople. Myanmar authorities claimed September 7 that market trading had returned to normal in Laukkai, the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper said. "The town has returned to normal, and shops, stores and markets have reopened," it said. The Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday that a total of 14,253 Myanmar border inhabitants had returned to Kokang as of one week ago. But the Laukkai source said that as long as Kokang is under Myanmar military government rule, it will be hard for local people to return to a normal life. Fulilai Hotel, owned by Liu Ah-bao, the largest casino in Laukkai, reopened to gamblers September 3. "A friend of mine, who has been staying free in Nansan, was informed to go back to work in Fulilai tomorrow," Xiao Yang, a taxi driver of Nansan, told the Global Times on September 3. There were dozens of big and small gambling dives such as Fulilai, guzzling the money of legal or illegal inbound gamblers and local residents in Laukkai, with table and online gaming. But only five or six had reopened with scarce business as of Tuesday, according to local sources. "It was common for a player to wager 100,000 to 200,000 yuan for a game on a normal day (before the war)," a source familiar with Laukkai's gambling houses said. "But since the casinos reopened, even an above-100- yuan play is rare." Another Chinese businessman surnamed Zhang, who owns a garment shop in Laukkai, returned to his newly renovated shop right after the unexpected fighting. "I had just spent about 130,000 yuan to renovate my shop for expanding business before the fighting," Zhang said. "Now it has been proved a wrong investment by the damned war." "I have moved all the clothes in my shop back to China, and I don't want to do business any more in Laukkai," Zhang said. He also owns a motorbike parts store in Laukkai, and it's tough for him to sell the store or transport all the odds and ends back to China. He has to shuttle between Kokang and Nansan every day to check on his store. Regular TV signals were relaunched Tuesday in Laukkai, but all show Myanmar programs, few of which can be understood by Laukkai's Chinese residents, sources said.

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