Research On Ethnic Chinese Community In North Myanmar

Myanmar has long been one of China's neighborly countries and is of great strategic significance to China. The research on Myanmar, particularly on Ethnic Chinese has not been paid enough attention for a long time. But recently the academic community gradually shows their concerns in this field.A community of the overseas-Chinese gradually came into being in Shan State of North Myanmar due to the long-term historical communication and several typical immigration tides since the twentieth century, which was embodied by the formation of overseas-Chinese (including the minority nationality) economic and cultural zone and their population increase. As China's development and Myanmar's boundary open-up since 1988, those Chinese new immigrants went to North Myanmar to develop various kinds of economic activities. They mainly aggregated in Kokang, Wa State and Mengla districts, controlled by three minority armed forces. Together with the locals (people of Kokang, Wa State and Mengla), the new Chinese immigrants helped develop the local economy. Soon several boom towns, where the majority residents were Chinese immigrants, appeared in the border of North Myanmar.The formation of overseas Chinese Community in national regional autonomy in Shan State of North Myanmar had complex historical and geographical reasons as the followings. Firstly, many territories and population historically belonged to China, though most Han people and other minorities changed their political belongings, they still kept Chinese cultural features and were influenced by China. Secondly, North Myanmar was historically a part of the important commercial route, and masses of caravan of merchants came and went between North Myanmar and Yunnan, which improved the close connections between these two places. Thirdly, the formation and development of the Communist Party of Myanmar exerted great effect on the formation of Chinese Community in North Myanmar. Lastly, the complicated nationality problems inside Myanmar, severe nationality conflicts and minority armed forces area in North Myanmar made the locals adopt immigrants from China and attached importance to the connection with Yunnan.On the whole, the economic trade demand, good business investment opportunities in North Myanmar and lower population density accelerated the trend of population, capital and goods flowing into North Myanmar. The number of Chinese population in North Myanmar had long been a controversial issue and could not be exactly calculated. But judging from many data and combining the local investigation, it's true that the number of Chinese population in North Myanmar was rapidly growing but still there was a trend that it's overstated the number of the new Chinese immigrants. On the basis of field survey, the thesis makes a tentative introduction on the migrating motives of the new immigrants and their living situations in the local area.The Ethnic Chinese Community was coincident with the Golden Triangle from the geographic aspect, so faced many complicated factors during the process of development such as: the abnormal political relationships with the central government, the potential limitation of economic development, drug issues, prohibition of gambling and border managerial problem with Yunnan. Therefore, China should lay enough attention on the related problem of Ethnic Chinese Community in North Myanmar, handle the task of investigation and strategy study, fully estimate the strategy to the local which may bring the positive or negative impact on the Sino-Myanmar relations and the security of the border, boost the stability and development of Ethnic Chinese Community by actively using every possible measures.