Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia

Siam Society. Bangkok, Thailand. October 18, 2011. Burma is important in Thailand for several obvious and some not so obvious reasons. Thailand and Burma share an extremely long and porous border to the north and west. Burmese refugees from ethnic fighting and a repressive military regime, populate refugee camps in Thailand, and Burmese workers, some legal and many illegal, work in low paying jobs throughout Thailand, mostly in construction. Thailand is the world’s headquarters for NGO’s and human rights organizations which are seeking to restore democracy to Burma and to end the killing and rights abuses and jailing which are a daily part of Burmese’s lives. Yet, many Thais view Burma as an historic enemy due to many ancient wars which culminated in Burmese sacking and totally destroying Siam’s capital city of Ayutthaya in 1767. Because of strong Thai interest in Burma, about 200 people turned out to attend a lecture by Burma scholar, Dr. Thant Myint-U, at Bangkok’s Siam Society, on October 18, 2011.

I like to listen to authors talk about the subject matter covered in their books. Unlike so many of today’s so-called public intellectuals and media talking heads, the very act of researching and writing a book guarantees a high degree of knowledge, depth and thought. Dr. Thant Myint-U was educated at Harvard and Cambridge, where he later taught history as a Fellow of Trinity College. He previously wrote a personal history of Burma entitled The River of Lost Footsteps. His most recent book and the subject of his lecture, was Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia.

Dr. Thant’s lecture thesis was that Burma’s isolation was ending due to the great interest in Burma of both China and India, which see Burma as a link between those two behemoths. Exploitation of Burma’s vast natural resources is a large part of the picture, but, as demonstrated by the maps shown during the lecture, Burma occupies an important strategic geographical position between its two giant neighbors. While China and India vie for influence over Burma, how Burma manages this will shape Burma’s future.

Thant Myint-U is a member of the former Burmese elite. His maternal grandfather, U Thant, rose from being the schoolmaster of a small town in the Irrawaddy Delta to become the UN secretary-general in the 1960s. Dr. Thant speaks more than perfect English and at age 45, he could play an important role in Burma’s future, in the event that Burma’s entrenched military dictatorship is ever replaced. My interest in Burma originates in my two trips there. It is hard to visit Burma without falling in love with the country and its people. (Photo above: Dr. Thant Myint-U lectures as Bangkok's Siam Society).