69 Chinese resource firms in Burma

EarthRights International claims to have found 69 Chinese multinational corporations involved in at least 90 hydropower, oil, natural gas and mining projects in Burma.

It reports that China has provided political support, military armaments and condition-free loans in order to benefit from Burma’s natural resources. It says China’s support for Burma’s energy industries, worth the equivalent of billions of US dollars, bolsters a regime that devotes at least 40 per cent of its budget to military spending but puts only five per cent into public education and barely more than one per cent into healthcare.

A spokesperson for the China National Offshore Oil Company, which has interests in several oil and natural gas blocks in Burma, said in justifying its investment: ‘We in the oil business have no choice but to go to places with oil. A company is in business for profits, not for politics.’