Min Aung Hlaing’s tourism fantasy
Amid devastating floods and armed conflicts across the country, junta boss Min Aung Hlaing has told ministries and tourism agencies “to boost tourism services and disseminate true information about safe travel to destinations in Myanmar to travelers,” junta media report.
The 2021 military coup rendered Myanmar’s tourism industry, already crippled by Covid-19, almost completely lifeless. Hotels have shut down and the massive tourism workforce – from travel agents to postcard-sellers at Yangon landmarks – have lost their livelihoods. It has been years since groups of foreign tourists were last seen in downtown Yangon, the commercial capital and gateway to Myanmar’s once-teeming destinations.
The United States, Britain and other European countries have warned their citizens against visiting Myanmar due to armed conflicts engulfing the country.
Speaking at an event to mark World Tourism Day last weekend, Min Aung Hlaing predicted a rise in travel to Myanmar this year despite reporting only 500,000 foreign arrivals in the first five months of 2024.
Like most of the coup-maker’s public statements, it was mere propaganda, devoid of any relation to reality.
Floods have devastated major tourist destinations like Inle Lake and Kalaw in Shan State, while his regime continues near-daily airstrikes on resistance-held territories in central Myanmar and Shan State. Elsewhere, the country’s world-famous Ngapali Beach in Rakhine State has fallen into the hands of the Arakan Army.
Myanmar’s tourism industry, once a significant and growing earner under the elected National League for Democracy government before Min Aung Hlaing’s coup, now lies in ruins like much of the rest of the economy.
Cheers for ‘Big Brother’ China
The October 2 issue of junta-controlled newspaper Kyemon featured an article hailing China on the 75th anniversary of its founding as a republic.
“China is becoming a superpower with the largest military in the world and its military has significantly improved under President Xi Jinping,” the article gushes, praising every aspect of the country, from politics to education to the economy. It adds that modern China has never invaded another country in its 75-year history.
However, the author fails to mention Beijing’s interference in Myanmar’s internal affairs over the past seven decades.
In pursuing its national interests, China not only supported the Communist Party of Burma with funds and weapons, but also fought alongside the CPB in its war against Ne Win’s government. As such, China laid the foundations for Myanmar’s eight decades of internal strife, now notorious as the world’s longest-running civil war. And the giant neighbor to the north continues to play that role today.
It is an open secret that Beijing stands behind ethnic armed groups like the United Wa State Army and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, whose control over territory on its border has expanded significantly over time. It is widely acknowledged that Beijing pursues a two-pronged policy in Myanmar, playing off the ethnic armies against the regime.
Its latest move is to pressure ethnic armed groups who have captured most of northern Shan State, including the junta’s regional command, to cease fighting. In a show of support for the junta, it invited regime ministers to Beijing last month and pledged military and other forms of assistance. Beijing also warned against “foreign interference” in Myanmar’s domestic issues, a veiled threat to deter ethnic armies from allying with the civilian National Unity Government, which China perceives as Western-backed.
All these acts amount to grave interference in Myanmar’s internal affairs.
In response to Beijing’s pressure on ethnic armed groups, junta boss Min Aung Hlaing promised to do everything possible to protect Chinese investments and staff in Myanmar. He has also declared Chinese New Year a public holiday, a move his predecessors never made despite their heavy reliance on China for arms and diplomatic support.
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