From IPS:
Jarring against a dearth of official news about the turmoil in Burma, the ‘Southern Weekend’ — one of China’s more liberal official newspapers — has chosen to run a lengthy feature about an ethnic Chinese entrepreneur striking it rich in the jade business in that neighbouring country.
But the feature was curiously apt. Describing the country as the “jade kingdom on earth” where fortune is easily made as long as one is hard-working, the article effectively perpetuated a centuries-old perception here of Burma here as a country of riches from which successive Chinese dynasties commanded a tribute.
Tellingly, the weekender article steered around Burma’s current state of turmoil and the brutal suppression by the military junta of peaceful demonstrations led by Buddhist monks. [Full Text]
Read also Q&A: ‘China Holds the Key to Democracy in Burma’, interview with Burma’s dissident Soe Myint.
