The ethnic Chinese caught in Myanmar’s political turmoil

As an ethnic Chinese citizen of Myanmar, Aye Myint is worried.

The 28-year-old web designer said that since the country’s military coup on February 1, many of her Myanmese friends had bombarded her with questions about China’s position on the overthrow of the elected government.

“Two most frequent words I hear are ‘army’ and ‘China’. Many friends know my parents are from China and ask me if Beijing is supporting the military. But I don’t know any more than they do even though I speak Chinese,” she said.

Aye Myint said she took part in one of the protests in Mandalay on February 10 against the military coup, saying “it is time to make our voice heard”.

Footage and photos of Myanmese Chinese protesters opposing the coup have also appeared online.

But that has not quelled doubts among the broader population about China’s role in the coup and whether the Chinese Myanmese were supporting Beijing.

“Many people started to question whether the Chinese Myanmese were standing with Beijing. That made me very worried,” she said.

Despite strong ties between the two neighbours, Aye Myint and other members of the ethnic Chinese community are concerned that they will feel a backlash against Beijing’s unwillingness to condemn the coup.

Relations between China and Myanmar appeared to be on track last year when Chinese President Xi Jinping met Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the country’s military heads in Naypyidaw.

During Xi’s visit that January, the two countries signed a raft of agreements, including a number related to the Kyaukpyu Special Economic Zone, a massive port project on the Bay of Bengal.

Since the February 1 coup, Beijing has hewed to its non-intervention policy, emphasised the importance of stability and referred to the army takeover as a “cabinet reshuffle”.

Nevertheless, China has been the subject of rumours that it sent technicians and supplies to Myanmar to help cut off internet access.

What does China say to claims it played a role in Myanmar’s military coup?

In Myanmar’s former capital Yangon, protesters have staged repeated demonstrations outside the Chinese embassy, demanding that China stop supporting the military junta.

Beijing has been at pains to insist that it had no role in the coup.

On Monday, Chinese ambassador to Myanmar Chen Hai said China was “not informed in advance of the political change in Myanmar” and that Beijing had maintained friendly relations with Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) and the armed forces.

He also rejected suggestions that China was helping Myanmar to build an internet firewall.

However, fears of a revived bloodshed haunt Lee Htay, a 65-year-old ethnic Chinese.

Lee, who owns a transport company in Myanmar, said he was “extremely worried” that anti-China sentiment could be aimed at members of the local community as it was in 1967, when tensions over Cultural Revolution ideology erupted into violence.

“It is very difficult [for us]. We are only 3 per cent of the population. If you support the NLD, the military will not be happy and vice versa. For us, going to the streets would be very dangerous. Silence is golden for now,” Lee said, adding that he planned to go to China if the situation worsened.

“I just pray that the worst will not happen. Please, no bloodshed like 1967.”

Lee said he had stopped some of his transport operations, had put expansion plans on hold and was trying to find a secure place for his vehicles.

“When President Xi visited Myanmar last year, I was thrilled to see bilateral relations were progressing very well, so I made some plans to invest and hire more people. But one year later, I am not even sure about what will happen tomorrow,” he said.

Henry Hing Lee Chan, a visiting senior research fellow at the Cambodia Institute for Cooperation and Peace, said there was a long history of anti-Chinese sentiment in Myanmar, both at the national and local levels.

“Chinese investment projects have been major flashpoints, especially the Myitsone dam, which was suspended in 2011 following the move towards democracy,” Chan said, referring to a huge hydropower project approved under a previous military junta.

“Locals have decried the environmental impacts and forced relocations associated with such projects, while Beijing has been keen to get these projects restarted,” he said.

“But one of the reasons why Myanmar’s military allowed limited democracy in the last decade was out of fear that it was becoming too dependent on China as its only backer, since it was cut off from the rest of the world through sanctions. The military now seems to value its own power over the risk of dependence on a giant neighbour.”

Aung San Suu Kyi, her NLD party and the Myanmar military that staged the coup

Chan said there was also growing anti-Chinese feeling as many young people sympathised with the protests in Hong Kong in 2019.

“China’s tactless authoritarianism and resentment towards outsiders contributes to that solidarity, but the main driver is the willingness of local autocrats and the uber-rich to pander to China for their own ends,” he said. “That means, as in Myanmar’s case, that China is blamed even when it hasn’t actually done much.”

He also warned that further confrontation in Myanmar looked increasingly likely, as “both sides misjudged the gravity of the situation”.

“In the case of the military, it underestimated the tenacity of the youth in launching civil disobedience movements, and Suu Kyi misjudged the military when talks broke down on January 29. The absence of savvy political operators on both sides make peaceful compromise not easy to work out.”