Chinese People in Burma - Trade and Industry

Trade and Industry

Mandalay is the economic and business hub of Upper Myanmar and considered one the epicenters of Burmese culture. An influx of Chinese immigrants, mostly from the Yunnan province have continuously increased the dynamics of the economy of the entire nation. Ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs have been increasingly involved Mandalay's economy since the imposition of sanctions by the United States and the European Union in the 1990s. The onset of economic liberalization and the rise of free markets in Burma, members of the Sino-Burmese community gravitated towards commerce and business and adhere to the Confucian paradigm of guanxi which is based on the idea that one's existence is influenced by the connection to others, implying the importance of having contacts and connections as a key ingredient for business success. Following Burma's new market transformation, Sino-Burmese immigrants from Yunnan, took up thousands of forged identity papers of formerly dead Bur-mans to become naturalized Burmese citizens. Nowadays, most foreign-born Chinese can easily obtain Burmese citizenship cards on the black market. Money from Mainland China is able to flow into property and skirt the foreign ownership ban as many mainland Chinese either obtain Myanmar identity cards via bribery, marriage to a Myanmar national or through middlemen who are ethnic Chinese Burmese citizens. Retail stores would be opened by Chinese entrepreneurs, whose business interests ranged from cement mixing to money exchanging. In addition, nearly all of Mandalay's and Rangoon's shops, hotels, restaurants, and real estate was owned by Sino-Burmese entrepreneurs. According to American writer Amy Chua, while the Burmese still owned some small printing houses and cheroot factories, it became a petrifying fact for ethnic Burmans living daily life with the dwarfed Chinese-built and Chinese-developed high rise buildings and apartments that surrounded them.

Mandalay's major industries include sports where soccer has arrived in Mandalay, with Yadanabon FC representing the city in the newly formed Myanmar National League, the country's first professional football league. Burmese Chinese entrepreneurs are also involved in silk weaving, tapestry, jade cutting and polishing, stone and wood carving, making marble and bronze Buddha images, food products, temple ornaments and paraphernalia, the working of gold leaves and of silver, garments, pharmaceuticals, match manufacturing, brewing and distilling. Burmese Chinese entrepreneurs have also have established heavy industry joint ventures with many large Chinese corporations. These industries include shipbuilding, copper, nickel, oil and natural gas, cement, base metals, coal, fertilizers, jet fuel, industrial minerals, kerosene, steel, tin, tungsten, agricultural processing, wood and wood products, logging, timber, rice, and construction materials, machinery, transport equipment, and plastics. Sino-Burmese entrepreneurs have also established numerous joint ventures to have the construction of oil pipelines bring thousands of jobs into the country. Chinese consumer electronics and fashion are also large industries. In Yangon, the Hokkien operate small and medium sized family busiensses in timber, rice, bean and legume trading, and cooking oil production while the Cantonese focused on small-scale manufacturing of handicrafts and similar products.

Between 1895 and 1930, Sino-Burmese businesses were concentrated within three sectors, brokerage, manufacturing, and contracting. Under British rule, Chinese share of the businesses were reduced significantly from 28.5 to 10 percent in manufacturing, 26.6 to 1.8 percent in brokerage and 31 to 4.3 percent in contracting while Burmese Indians improved their economic positions significantly and controlled a larger proportion of the businesses within the three sectors. Other major sectors between 1895 to 1930 that have declined include banking and money-lending that dropped from 33.3 percent to 0, trading, 13.3 to 12.6 percent, as well as the import and export trade, extraction, distribution and supplying, and business partnerships. However, Chinese share in milling increased from 0 to 4.5 percent, agents from 13.3 to 15.6 percent, shopkeeping from 6.7 to 18.3 percent, and merchanting from 12.3 to 13.1 percent.

As Sino-Burmese entrepreneurs became more prosperous, they started joint ventures with ethnic Chinese business moguls from all over the world, but most concentrated on surrounding countries such as Malaysia and Thailand as well as Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Of the 47 rice mills in Burma, 13 percent was controlled by ethnic Chinese and was utilized for rice exportation and processing. During the last few decades of the 19th century, Chinese turned to rural money-lending. Sino-Burmese businessmen ran illicit opium and gambling dens, tea shops, and liquor stores. They were also agents for the sale of petroleum products. For the Burmese Chinese, business success is attributed towards networking skills, work ethic, trustworthiness, making the most of the opportunities when they present themselves, looking towards the future, and honor. The Sino-Burmese community also had major licenses for liquor and opium and as well as a Chamber of Commerce to promote and protect their interests. Legal two way trade between Mainland China and Burma reached 1.5 billion dollars US per year by 1988 and additional Chinese trade, investment, economic, and military aid was sought. The Chinese Chamber of Commerce served as a lobby group for Chinese businessmen. Malaysian business magnate Robert Kuok converted Mandalay and Rangoon into the largest hubs for business networking and deal making. For smaller businesses and newer start-ups, many self-employed Sino-Burmese made a great living selling cheap bicycle tires shipped from China. Private gem mining has also been one of the largest industries in Burma and many of the concessionaires are owned by Sino-Burmese entrepreneurs. At present, Burma's booming gem industry is completely under Chinese hands and the thriving Burmese Chinese businessmen at every level, from the financiers to the concession operators to the owners that scores of newly opened jewelry shops swamped Mandalay and Rangoon. One notable incident occurred in June 2011 where a gem market was forced to be shut down after a fight embroiled between a group of Chinese and Burmese merchants over a business deal that soured up. Accusations from Burmese and Chinese merchants fought over a deal that was worth $5,300 U.S. Burmese Chinese entrepreneurs are not just dominant in the big business sector but also in the small business and hotel sector. Disenchantment soon grew among indigenous Burmese merchants who felt they could not compete with ethnic Chinese businesses. During the Burmese property boom in the 1990s, ethnic Chinese real estate developers and real estate entrepreneurs began building and speculating as real estate values doubled and tripled their normal values which resulted ethnic Burmese to be pushed further away into the outskirts of major Burmese cities towards so-called Shantytowns. Despite the disproportionate amount of Sino-Burmese socioeconomic and entrepreneurial success, underlying resentment and bitterness from the indigenous Burmese is accumulating as there has been no existence of indigenous Burmese having any substantial business equity in Burma.

Burmese Chinese have dominated several types of businesses such as selling bicycle tires, auto parts and electrical goods, ironmongery and hardware, printing and bookbinding, books and stationery, paper and printing ink, tailoring and dry-cleaning, English tuition, and money lending. Restaurants and karaoke bars are the most common establishments . They also traded in textiles, gold and jewellery, where the market was traditionally dominated by Burmese women. Many Burmese businesspeople are still involved in businesses such as running restaurants, jewellery shops and handling money exchanges. Ethnic Chinese minorities dominate both the legitimate trade as well as the highly lucrative illegitimate trade in opium and other unsavory drug enterprises. Burmese-born ethnic Chinese industrialists such as Lo Hsing Han and Kyaw Win continue to control Burma's major banks, airlines, logging companies, gem-stone mining concessions and other large Burmese conglomerates. Lo Hsing Han's son, Steven Law is also a prominent businessman well known for being at the helm of Burma's largest conglomerate Asia World. Law also has business holdings in sports, where he is the majority owner of Magway FC, a Burmese football club. Many Sino-Burmese businessmen continue to remain at the forefront of Burma's economy. Much of the foreign investment has been from Mainland China and channeled though ethnic Chinese business networks. Many members of the Sino-Burmese business community act as agent for ethnic Chinese investors outside of Burma.