For nearly a year now the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar has been racked by US-sponsored terrorism attempting to reinstall Washington’s client regime of choice headed by Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.
Compounding the daily violence carried out by the US-sponsored opposition, are growing sanctions leveled by the US and other nations pressured to follow suit targeting Myanmar’s economy externally as US-sponsored terrorists target daily economic activity domestically.
To circumvent the growing number of sanctions attempting to suffocate Myanmar, Myanmar is now using the Chinese Yuan to trade with its neighbor to the north.
Chinese state media’s Global Times in an article titled, “Myanmar accepts yuan as official settlement currency for border trade with China,” would report:
Myanmar has accepted the Chinese yuan as an official settlement currency for border trade with China, in a move that aims to address its shortage of US dollars and other foreign currencies, as the Southeast Asian country faces economic challenges amid political instability, sources close to the matter told the Global Times on Wednesday.
China is by far Myanamr’s largest trading partner. According to Harvard University’s Atlas of Economic Complexity, over 33% of Myanamr’s exports go to China and over 45% of all imports come from China. China is followed by neighboring Thailand which accounts for 16% of Myanamr’s exports and nearly 16% of its imports.
The ability for Myanmar to sidestep transactions using Western-controled currencies and networks will mean finding a financial lifeline throughout the duration of the crisis no matter how hard Washington attempts to pressure Myanmar’s economy from here on in.
The Global Times would also note:
The yuan’s use in trade settlements will be a pilot program involving border trade at the initial stage, focusing on transactions of small commodities and daily necessities, which the locals call “small trade.”
In the future, the yuan’s settlement could expand to cover what is called “big trade,” which refers mainly to containerships carrying big commodities, marine products, machines and equipment, one source noted.
The article also noted how the US has weaponized its control over global finances and how China is offering targeted nations a defense against this:
The US has been abusing the dollar’s dominant status to impose arbitrary sanctions on other countries, and the yuan’s further expansion in Myanmar’s trade settlements may provide a shield against such a potential weapon, analysts said.
The US has claimed it is placing sanctions on Myanmar in order to “restore democracy” and address “human rights abuses.” However, the US-backed opposition was practically run out of Washington and by foreigners. Aung San Suu Kyi had a collection of advisers ranging from British to Australian nationals handling policy regarding the most sensitive aspects of Myanmar’s internal political affairs including amendments to the nation’s constitution.
The apparent “success” of the opposition and its “civil disobedience movement” is betrayed by the opposition’s own admissions that officials are resigning and economic activity grinding to a halt because of death threats made by armed and eager terrorists who have killed anyone refusing to join the opposition including teachers and red cross workers.
Myanmar Now – an opposition paper funded by the US government through the National Endowment for Democracy (according to Columbia Journalism Review) has recently reported that administrators from Kayan Township in the Yangon region have resigned in mass not out of solidarity with the opposition – but out of fear of being murdered by the opposition’s roving death squads referred to by the Western media as “people’s defense forces” or “PDFs.”
Myanmar Now in its article, “Kayan Township hit by wave of resignations, as junta struggles to retain control,” would report:
In an interview with Myanmar Now, the leader of PDF-Kayan said that virtually every ward and village administrator in the township had quit by the deadline.
According to the Kayan Channel, a Facebook page created to track developments in the township, some 60 administrators have quit so far, roughly half of them citing death threats as their reason for leaving.
This helps illustrates that China’s desire to help Myanmar overcome US pressure through sanctions is not an attempt to aid and abet “abuses” carried out by Myanmar’s government, but to help Myanmar survive yet another cynical and deliberately engineered armed crisis used by Washington to redraw the map of entire regions of the planet in its favor.
The pilot project between Myanmar and China will not only open the door to wider financial cooperation between Myanmar and China but also help set a precedent and streamline the process for other nations looking to follow suit for a variety of reasons. The trend of targeted nations switching to the Chinese Yuan from a wider perspective, means ultimately undermining the strength and hegemony of the US Dollar.
Washington’s uncompromising foreign policy of coercing and crushing nations rather than allowing nations to enjoy constructive ties between both East and West has gone from protecting nearly a century of US global domination to a process of the US’ own self-isolation.
Should Myanmar’s crisis subside and stability be restored specifically because of China’s economic rather than political or military intervention, a strong signal will be sent to the rest of Southeast Asia targeted by US interference and facing similar choices of either tolerating US interference because of the financial stranglehold the US still has over the region and the world – or adopting alternatives that undercut and eliminate that stranglehold.
Brian Berletic is a Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
