Irrawaddy-Oct 16
China has started surveying for a railway to Kyaukphyu on Myanmar’s Indian Ocean coast from Kunming in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan, according to Rakhine State residents. Junta police guarded Chinese technicians investigating the Maei-Ann road in Ann Township earlier this month, said a civil society organization member, who did not want to be named. “Chinese men surveyed beside the Ann-Maei road. I heard they were surveying for a railway. Even the township’s junta administrators were not informed. The Chinese appeared to be able to do anything with a police guard.” A former Rakhine State lawmaker for Kyaukphyu, U Poe San, said the project lacks transparency and there has been no public consultation. “We welcome any project that will bring benefits and create jobs but if it only benefits China and creates jobs for foreigners, we don’t want it,” he told The Irrawaddy. Other China-backed projects, including the Shwe gas scheme and crude oil terminal on Made Island and oil and gas pipelines, only harmed Kyaukphyu, U Poe San said. Residents lost their farmland and fishing grounds to those projects, he added.
When pipeline construction between Kyaukphyu and Yunnan started in 2011 under President Thein Sein’s transitional government, China promised 24-hour electricity and proper compensation for villagers. Ann residents said they never received full compensation. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/specials/myanmar-china-watch/china-begins-surveys-for-railway-on-myanmars-indian-ocean.html
