The Evolution of Relations between Myanmar and China in the 1990s: Results and Assessments

Abstract

The article gives insights in relations between Myanmar and China after Myanmar’s generals seized power through a coup d'état in September 1988. As a result of repressions and the failed power transition to the opposition in 1990, the US and Europe imposed harsh economic sanctions on Myanmar’s military government. This forced the Yangon to establish closer political and economic ties with Beijing. The author outlines the specificity of cooperation between Myanmar and China along the political-military, the economic and the social tracks with the focus upon discrepancies between the official and the grass-root levels. In the author’s opinion, the growing imbalance between these dimensions accounted for the key vulnerability factor in the dialogue between the two countries.