Discussion of the Main Findings

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the region which is stage of a game for influence with China. When the country shows its improvement in the direction which the U.S. desires, it is rewarded.

5.2. Discussion of the Main Findings

Regarding the result of investigation on the pattern of interactions between Myanmar and the two major powers, China and the U.S., Myanmar has gone through major shifts in its foreign policy two times from 1988 to 2013. The first shift took place in 1988 where the rupture in Myanmar-U.S. relations became apparent, and the cordial China-Myanmar relations began. The second shift was in 2011 where an unprecedented improvement in the Myanmar-U.S. relations was commenced, and the relationship with China remained healthy. China has embraced Myanmar’s military government by supporting it politically, economically and militarily during the time of isolation; consequently, the ties between the two countries are based on a deepening trust which has been built over the past twenty years. Despite the rapprochement with the U.S. recently, Myanmar remains mostly dependent on China, especially in military and economic aspects. In the early stage of the re-engagement, the U.S. objectives are to encourage political reforms and promote human rights in Myanmar.

From Myanmar’s perspective, the country’s foreign affairs have been immensely improved as a result of political and economic reform initiatives. The U.S. official visits not only represent the U.S. support to the political transition in Myanmar but also the U.S. acceptance for the country which has been named as a “pariah” for decades, and the door for pursuing a relation with other countries for Myanmar is open. Myanmar’s vantages over its Southeast Asian neighbor are the strategic location and abundant natural resources; when encouraging investment environment is built, new investors are thus attracted to come. Having more options for trade partners consequently boosts the country’s economy in general and yields the Burmese government the better control to steer its economy out of the distressing situation in the foreseeable future. The

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improvement of the economic situation and people’s living condition is also expected to lower the internal political pressure on the government as well. Internationally, the criticism on being an authoritarian has been lowered, and country’s image is ameliorated.

This allows Myanmar to gain a better position in taking the ASEAN chair in 2014, and attracts more assistance from international community.

Regarding the conjecture whether Myanmar’s changing foreign policy is mainly altered by its deepened dependence on China, the result of an investigation on Myanmar’s internal concern suggests that the rationale behind the transition derived from pressures perceived by the military government from different sources. It is premised that despite Myanmar’s improving gesture toward the U.S., the country clearly maintains the healthy relationship and highly values Chinese friendship. This behavior may not represent the desire to mitigate Chinese power but may represent the desire to bring more actors to be involved in order to assist the country to solve the problems that China fails to do so.

Although China has expressed concerned over Myanmar’s political situation from time to time, it does not wish to interfere. Moreover, even though China was able to protect the military government from the UN resolution, the government’s legitimacy in ruling the country remained widely unacceptable, and the international pressure was still pounding.

Therefore, initiating reforms and shifting its foreign policy would allow the military government to unleash the country form both internal and external pressures.

From China’s perspective, Myanmar’s recent move on foreign policy may not be detrimental as it was conjectured. Despite new allies, Myanmar still has to rely on China in many aspects and highly appraises the trust between the two countries. Although Myanmar has established a civil-backed government, the connection which has been built with the military government over the past twenty years is secured. 25% of the parliamentary members are directly appointed by the army, and some parliamentary members are formerly military officers. In addition, the evidence collected in the early stage of the transition shows that China is still able to secure its own economic interest

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and take the lead in Myanmar’s investment sector. In political aspect, China’s image of responsible power will be complimented by Myanmar’s initiative on democratization.

The political reforms have apparently lowered international pressure not only subjected to Myanmar but also to China as being protective about Burmese authoritarianism in exchange of its economic interests.

From the U.S. perspective, despite the substantive improvement has not been seen during the beginning period of the rapprochement with Myanmar, it is considered as the point where the long-standing tension between the two countries is dramatically eased. What has been done in the U.S. foreign policy toward Myanmar since the visit of the Secretary of States Hillary Clinton suggests that Washington is well-aware of the firmly established ties between China and Myanmar; increasing the U.S. influence as leverage against Chinese influence in Myanmar is thus seemed to be the unlikely objective for the rapprochement. The improving relationship with Myanmar only reflects the U.S.

commitment on providing more attention to the Southeast Asian region according to the foreign policy plan in the Obama administration. Although it can be argued that Washington’s aim in increasing its economic interest is also included in the rapprochement plan, the improvement in this particular aspect mainly relies on Myanmar’s progress in democratization and humanitarianism. As the Burmese government expresses that the reform is expected be achieved as in a long-term plan, Washington could only support Naypyidaw in political and humanitarian aspects and leave its economic goals in pending during the beginning stage of re-engagement.

In conclusion, the shift in Myanmar’s foreign policy toward the U.S. began in 2011 has not challenged status quo in the China-U.S. competition for influence in Southeast Asia.

Myanmar is able to maintain a cordial relationship with China, especially militarily and economically; Chinese anxiety on losing its influence in Myanmar is thus not likely to be created. However, Myanmar’s changing approach may be considered as the signal for

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China to be prepared for a more competitive situation in Myanmar’s economy as there are more actors involved.

5.3 Conclusion

The main objective of this research is to investigate Myanmar’s foreign policy toward China and the U.S. 1988-2013 in order to identify the dominant characteristics in the pattern of interactions. This qualitative-styled research employs mixed strategies of using strategic theories identify the answer main research problems and using analysis on collected data form secondary sources and interviews as the supporting evidence and the tool to find answer of other questions. Data collection in Chapter Two, Chapter Three and Chapter Four derived from secondary sources and interviews. Secondary data derives from books, journals, official documents, news articles, and Multimedia resources, and the interview subjects are scholars, students and journalists.

As the research approach is relatively new and includes information which has not seen to appear in the pertinent literature, the result of the study is unlikely to be compared with other research with a different timeframe. However, the result shows that despite the rapprochement with the U.S., Myanmar remains closely allied with China, and the rupture does not seem to appear in the pattern of interactions. The contribution of this study are: it has re-assessed the pattern of strategic interaction between China and the U.S. in Southeast Asia; China and the U.S influence in the new arena, which is Myanmar, is firstly examined after the shift in Myanmar’s foreign policy in 2011 and a fresh insight analysis on current Myanmar’s foreign policy are added to the pertinent literature.