The author is a Burmese coordinator of the UK-based Free Rohingya Coalition, general secretary of Forces of Renewal Southeast Asia, and a fellow of the Genocide Documentation Center in Cambodia.
LONDON
Social media images of burning Chinese factories in Yangon’s suburban factory district known as Hlaing ThaYa must be making already concerned foreign investors sit up. They will be paying closer attention to the escalating murder and violence by the country’s coup regime, as they try to crush the massively popular revolt against them.
Global Times, the Chinese government mouthpiece, characterized the burning of factories as “barbaric,” while not even making a brief mention of the slaughter of 18 unarmed peaceful protesters in the same location the same day. Despite public denials of arson by the protesters — who live next to these factories — the Chinese propaganda simply repeats Myanmar junta’s typically deceitful narrative of the victims as instigators of violence and property destruction. The news outlet then proceeded to label any Myanmarese who raise the prospect of destroying Chinese assets “enemies of Myanmar and China who need to be severely punished.”
Myanmar military leaders’ lies are well-documented. After its troops torched nearly 400 Rohingya villages in 2017 — which amounted to more than 38,000 buildings including mosques, rice storage facilities, residences, and shops — the pseudo-democratic government attempted to deceive both the country and the world. They claimed victims of their genocide “burned down their own homes” before running away to Bangladesh.
The escalating popular protests are a direct response to the universally unpopular coup. Protesters indignantly feel that the coup against Aung San Suu Kyi and National League for Democracy brazenly violates the democratic rights and will of each and every Myanmar voter. Importantly, the coup has angered the non-voting age youth population who are prepared to accept their future as a subdued population under the boot of military dictators, irrespective of whether the National League for Democracy (NLD) is at the helm or not.
On certain designated nationwide strike days, the protests draw as many as 25 million people, roughly half the country’s population, onto the streets of towns and cities, villages, and even hamlets. Parents are seen blessing their young sons and daughters, going out to the streets.
A Hong Kong-based French journalist specializing in Southeast Asia characterizes the daily protests as an “urban civil war.” These protests have been met with the “daily slaughter” by the junta, as one army-bred activist friend of mine said. He has joined the nationwide protests — now on their 38th day.
The 15-member UN Security Council, including Myanmar military-friendly China and Russia, unanimously endorsed the council president’s March 10 statement, which “condemns the violence against peaceful protesters, including against women, youth and children. It expresses deep concern at restrictions on medical personnel, civil society, labor union members, journalists, and media workers, and calls for the immediate release of all those detained arbitrarily.”
A week before the Council’s consensus condemnations, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet demanded that “Myanmar’s military… stop murdering and jailing protesters,” while highlighting the enforced disappearances of detained protesters and arbitrary arrest of over 1,750 protesters.
By definition, the murder of peaceful civilian protesters by security forces, enforced disappearances of activists, summary executions, and death by torture (of prominent NLD members and others) are crimes against humanity. According to the Radio Free Asia data released on March 14, the number of murdered protesters has reached over 130 since the anti-coup protests which mushroomed across Myanmar a month and a half ago.
In response to the coup and the subsequent bloody assault on protesters, US President Joe Biden announced the freezing of a $1 billion Myanmar government fund in the US financial system. This was followed by the US government’s move to stop financial transactions through the US by the military’s two corporate conglomerates with a combined worth of estimated $16.5 billion.
The junta has evidently numbed itself to the impact on Myanmar’s economy and to the financial impact on the military as an institution of targeted sanctions. Additionally, it seems not to care about the World Bank’s effective moratorium on loans and grants to the country, despite the damage such punitive measures will have on the country’s economic life and coronavirus-impacted public health and social sector.
There are three major reasons for the imperviousness of the generals and their families.
First, the regime is rightly convinced, thanks to Beijing’s veto protection, of the impossibility of Security Council-authorized military intervention and the kind of crippling economic sanctions that were used in Iraq.
Second, the families of the military leaders run expansive business empires within close-knit mafia-like webs of interlocking business interests in partnership with many local Chinese tycoons, whose children also marry into top military families. These networks have for several decades laundered and parked the military leaders’ ill-gotten gains in banks in China and Singapore, according to sources in Yangon familiar with these financial arrangements.
Third, the top five investors in the military-controlled Myanmar economy are Asian investors who are not constrained by national laws at home or moral considerations from their governments.
The World Bank data shows that Singapore and Hong Kong (China) were the two largest foreign investors in Myanmar as of 2020, accounting for 34% and 26% foreign direct investment, respectively, in that country.
Even when Kirin, one of Japan’s largest beer-producers, decided to cut ties with its military-linked business partner, it was solely due to the pressure from the international activist campaigns and the resultant bad press. Kirin’s divestment is despite Tokyo’s whitewashing of Myanmar’s genocide.
In sharp contrast to Singapore and China investors, even in the early days of the protests, other foreign investors have reportedly been concerned about the negative impact on the country’s economy and in-country businesses. The day after the coup, BBC Asia Business Report on Feb. 2 ran a story entitled “Military coup likely to damage Myanmar’s economy,” quoting nervous foreign investors and risk analysis firms. Stephen Lamar, the president of the American Apparel & Footwear Association, was quoted as saying, “many of the trade group’s members did business in Myanmar and found the coup deeply concerning.” According to the same BBC report, Anwita Basu of Fitch Solutions, a financial data firm, said the coup has cut in half Myanmar’s projected 6% economic growth prior to the coup. In addition, she was quoted as saying, “the biggest investors that will be impacted by this, will be Asian investors, and you have seen a very tentative reaction from a lot of these countries.”
These investors and businesses are right to be tentative about doing business with Myanmar after the coup, for the situation has all the signs of a protracted bloody civil-military conflict. Unlike previous urban-based anti-military protests going back to the 1960s, today’s protest movement aligns the pervasive pro-democracy and pro-human rights perspective of the country’s multi-ethnic public in the cities and towns with that of minority communities scattered throughout the border regions, where a dozen or so well-armed ethnic armed organizations fight for a federal democracy while controlling large swaths of territories and minority populations.
Be it the military’s Rohingya genocide or the ongoing crimes against humanity or against the majoritarian Buddhist public, the entire Myanmar society is acutely aware of the killers’ emboldened sense of impunity, which has been handed to them via the UN. They know that the generals’ sense of impunity and invincibility is rooted in the power held by their neighbor, China, which plays an instrumental role in the decades-long oppression.
Of all the foreign investors, Beijing has been the Myanmar military’s most important protector at the Security Council, and enabler of the widely despised military junta. This is the junta which Myanmar people commonly view as “the existential threat to the country and [democratic] polity,” echoing such characterization by Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, Myanmar’s representative at the UN General Assembly, on Feb. 26.
The Burmese public, both in real space and in social media, is expressing their tremendous public rage against China for enabling and protecting the Burmese military.
Instead of using its clout with the junta to reign in the latter’s terroristic and murderous handling of popular protests, China has placed its economic assets before the safety of 53 million Myanmar people. Meanwhile, it has framed the military’s international crimes as “an internal affair.” Nervous about the protests’ economic impact on its strategic assets, Beijing held “secret” meetings with Myanmar military business partners and security officials to make “security arrangements” to protect the pipelines, Chinese businesses across the country — as evidenced in the Myanmar MOFA — leaked minutes of one such meeting held on Feb. 23.
While the ongoing confrontation between Myanmar society at large and the criminal junta is bound to negatively impact Myanmar’s economy, China is also responsible. Its short-sighted, human-rights-indifferent approach to pursuing and protecting its interests is further aggravating the economic and political conditions with potentially dire consequences for all.
*Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Anadolu Agency.
OTTAWA – Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.5 per cent last month as hiring remained weak across the economy.
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey on Friday said employment rose by a modest 15,000 jobs in October.
Business, building and support services saw the largest gain in employment.
Meanwhile, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the largest decline.
Many economists see weakness in the job market continuing in the short term, before the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts spark a rebound in economic growth next year.
Despite ongoing softness in the labour market, however, strong wage growth has raged on in Canada. Average hourly wages in October grew 4.9 per cent from a year ago, reaching $35.76.
Friday’s report also shed some light on the financial health of households.
According to the agency, 28.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older were living in a household that had difficulty meeting financial needs – like food and housing – in the previous four weeks.
That was down from 33.1 per cent in October 2023 and 35.5 per cent in October 2022, but still above the 20.4 per cent figure recorded in October 2020.
People living in a rented home were more likely to report difficulty meeting financial needs, with nearly four in 10 reporting that was the case.
That compares with just under a quarter of those living in an owned home by a household member.
Immigrants were also more likely to report facing financial strain last month, with about four out of 10 immigrants who landed in the last year doing so.
That compares with about three in 10 more established immigrants and one in four of people born in Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says health-care spending in Canada is projected to reach a new high in 2024.
The annual report released Thursday says total health spending is expected to hit $372 billion, or $9,054 per Canadian.
CIHI’s national analysis predicts expenditures will rise by 5.7 per cent in 2024, compared to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2022.
This year’s health spending is estimated to represent 12.4 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. Excluding two years of the pandemic, it would be the highest ratio in the country’s history.
While it’s not unusual for health expenditures to outpace economic growth, the report says this could be the case for the next several years due to Canada’s growing population and its aging demographic.
Canada’s per capita spending on health care in 2022 was among the highest in the world, but still less than countries such as the United States and Sweden.
The report notes that the Canadian dental and pharmacare plans could push health-care spending even further as more people who previously couldn’t afford these services start using them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
As Canadians wake up to news that Donald Trump will return to the White House, the president-elect’s protectionist stance is casting a spotlight on what effect his second term will have on Canada-U.S. economic ties.
Some Canadian business leaders have expressed worry over Trump’s promise to introduce a universal 10 per cent tariff on all American imports.
A Canadian Chamber of Commerce report released last month suggested those tariffs would shrink the Canadian economy, resulting in around $30 billion per year in economic costs.
More than 77 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S.
Canada’s manufacturing sector faces the biggest risk should Trump push forward on imposing broad tariffs, said Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters president and CEO Dennis Darby. He said the sector is the “most trade-exposed” within Canada.
“It’s in the U.S.’s best interest, it’s in our best interest, but most importantly for consumers across North America, that we’re able to trade goods, materials, ingredients, as we have under the trade agreements,” Darby said in an interview.
“It’s a more complex or complicated outcome than it would have been with the Democrats, but we’ve had to deal with this before and we’re going to do our best to deal with it again.”
American economists have also warned Trump’s plan could cause inflation and possibly a recession, which could have ripple effects in Canada.
It’s consumers who will ultimately feel the burden of any inflationary effect caused by broad tariffs, said Darby.
“A tariff tends to raise costs, and it ultimately raises prices, so that’s something that we have to be prepared for,” he said.
“It could tilt production mandates. A tariff makes goods more expensive, but on the same token, it also will make inputs for the U.S. more expensive.”
A report last month by TD economist Marc Ercolao said research shows a full-scale implementation of Trump’s tariff plan could lead to a near-five per cent reduction in Canadian export volumes to the U.S. by early-2027, relative to current baseline forecasts.
Retaliation by Canada would also increase costs for domestic producers, and push import volumes lower in the process.
“Slowing import activity mitigates some of the negative net trade impact on total GDP enough to avoid a technical recession, but still produces a period of extended stagnation through 2025 and 2026,” Ercolao said.
Since the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement came into effect in 2020, trade between Canada and the U.S. has surged by 46 per cent, according to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
With that deal is up for review in 2026, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candace Laing said the Canadian government “must collaborate effectively with the Trump administration to preserve and strengthen our bilateral economic partnership.”
“With an impressive $3.6 billion in daily trade, Canada and the United States are each other’s closest international partners. The secure and efficient flow of goods and people across our border … remains essential for the economies of both countries,” she said in a statement.
“By resisting tariffs and trade barriers that will only raise prices and hurt consumers in both countries, Canada and the United States can strengthen resilient cross-border supply chains that enhance our shared economic security.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
