April 04, 2025

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Announcement of New Website: Rohingya Today (RohingyaToday.Com) Dear Readers, From 1st January 2019 onward, the Rohingya News Portal 'Rohingya Blogger' will be renamed and upgraded as 'Rohingya Today'. Due to this transition to a new name, our website will be available at www.rohing...

Rohingya News @ Int'l Media

Maung Zarni, leader of the Free Rohingya Coalition, speaks at a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo on Thursday. | CHISATO TANAKA By Chisato Tanaka, Published by The Japan Times on October 25, 2018 A leader of a global network of activists for Rohingya Mu...

Myanmar News

By Sena Güler | Published by Anadolu Agency on December 1, 2018 Maung Zarni says he will boycott Beijing-sponsored events until the country reverses its 'troubling path' ANKARA -- A human rights activist and intellectual said he withdrew from a Beijing-sponsored forum in London to pro...

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Article @ RB

Oskar Butcher RB Article October 6, 2018 Every night in an unassuming shop space located in Mandalay’s 39thStreet, Lu Maw and Lu Zaw – the remaining members of the Burma’s most famous comedy trio, the Moustache Brothers – present their show: a curious combination of comedy, political sa...

Article @ Int'l Media

A demonstration over identity cards at a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh in April, 2018. Image: NurPhoto/SIPA USA/PA Images. By Natalie Brinham | Published by Open Democracy on October 21, 2018 Wary of the past, Rohingya have frustrated the UN’s attempts to provide them with documenta...

Analysis @ RB

By M.S. Anwar | Opinion & Analysis The Burmese (Myanmar) quasi-civilian government unleashed a large-scale violence against the minority Rohingya in the western Myanmar state of Arakan in 2012. The violence, which some wrongly frame as ‘Communal’, was carried out by the Burmese armed forces...

Analysis @ Int'l Media

By Maung Zarni, Natalie Brinham | Published by Middle East Institute on November 20, 2018 “It is an ongoing genocide (in Myanmar),” said Mr. Marzuki Darusman, the head of the UN Human Rights Council-mandated Independent International Fact-Finding Mission at the official briefing at ...

Opinion @ RB

Rohingya refugees who fled from Myanmar wait to be let through by Bangladeshi border guards after crossing the border in Palang Khali, Bangladesh October 9, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj MS Anwar RB Opinion November 12, 2018 Some may differ. But I believe the government of Bangladesh is ...

Opinion @ Int'l Media

By Maung Zarni | Published by Anadolu Agency on December 15, 2018 US will not intercede, and Myanmar's neighbors see it through economic lens, so international coalition for Rohingya needed LONDON -- The U.S. House of Representatives Thursday overwhelmingly passed a resolution ca...

History @ RB

Aman Ullah  RB History August 25, 2016 The ethnic Rohingya is one of the many nationalities of the union of Burma. And they are one of the two major communities of Arakan; the other is Rakhine and Buddhist. The Muslims (Rohingyas) and Buddhists (Rakhines) peacefully co-existed in the A...

Rohingya History by Scholars

Dr. Maung Zarni's Remark: The best research on Rohingya history: British Orientalism which created the pseudo-scientific biological notion of "Taiyinthar" or "real natives" of #Myanmar caused that country's post-colonial cancer of official & popular genocidal Racism.  This co...

Report @ RB

(Photo: Soe Zeya Tun, Reuters) RB News  October 5, 2013  Thandwe, Arakan – Rakhinese mob in Thandwe started attacking Kaman Muslims on September 28, 2013. As a result, 5 Kaman Muslims were mercilessly killed and 1 was died in heart attack while escaping the attack. 781 Kaman Mus...

Report by Media/Org

Rohingya families arrive at a UNHCR transit centre near the village of Anjuman Para, Cox’s Bazar, south-east Bangladesh after spending four days stranded at the Myanmar border with some 6,800 refugees. (Photo: UNHCR/Roger Arnold) By UN News May 11, 2018 Late last year, as violent repressi...

Press Release

(Photo: Reuters) Joint Statement: Rohingya Groups Call on U.S. Government to Ensure International Accountability for Myanmar Military-Planned Genocide December 17, 2018  We, the undersigned Rohingya organizations worldwide, call for accountability for genocide and crimes against...

Rohingya Orgs Activities

RB News December 6, 2017 Tokyo, Japan -- Legislators from all parties, along with Human Rights Now, Human Rights Watch, and Save the Children, came together to host the emergency parliament in-house event “The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis and Japanese Diplomacy” on December 4th. The eve...

Petition

By Wyston Lawrence RB Petition October 15, 2017 There is one petition has been going on Change.org to remove Ven. Wira Thu from Facebook. He has been known as Buddhist Bin Laden. Time magazine published his image on their cover with the title of The Face of Buddhist Terror. The petitio...

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A human rights activist and genocide scholar from Burma Dr. Maung Zarni visits Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi Extermination Camp and calls on European governments - Britain, France, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Denmark, Hungary and Germany not to collaborate with the Evil - like they did with Hitler 75 ye...

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Is racial hatred of Chinese a problem in Burma?

The scene at the gem market in  Mahaaungmyay Township in Mandalay on Monday. Photo: Mizzima

New Delhi (Mizzima) – A fight broke out between ethnic Chinese and local Burmese gem traders at a gem market in Mahaaungmyay Township in Mandalay on Monday. The Chinese were taken to a safe location, and the gem market was closed after the clash.
The scene at the gem market in Mahaaungmyay Township in Mandalay on Monday. Photo: Mizzima
In Burma, many Chinese people own successful businesses. The recent incident and others like it have raised a question of whether there are racial problems between the Burmese and the Chinese living and doing business in Burma?

Mizzima reporter Te Te has compiled a roundup of views on the racial views of Burmese in Mandalay. In addition, he talked in depth with Dr. Hla Kyaw Zaw,  a Sino-Burmese affairs analyst.

Nyi Pu Lay, a writer

I personally don’t have racial hatred. I think we should look at the cause of the incident and consider that. We need to consider what led to the current situation. We need to think why the Chinese colonized us. It’s very likely that they (Chinese people) can manipulate others in the business and trading community. It is possible that rich Chinese can have haughty manners. The businessmen will know more than we know. 


 Tun Oo (Tun Oo Press) 

People feel unhappy that outsiders are flooding into our city. In the past, outsiders beat Burmese in karaoke lounges. They have money and good cars.  Some did very bad things, but they did not shoulder any responsibility. For instance, if their car hit someone, they used to refuse to bear any responsibility. If the victims tried to take legal actions against them, they just went back across the border. They are just guests who came from far away. Some have fake identification cards but they do business. They enter the country and buy raw materials. But, they cannot speak the local language and some of them are very rude. They have formed their own groups. They manipulate the religious sculpture market too. They usually go to the alabaster mountains in Madaya to buy raw materials. Some have bought homes in nearby villages and made Chinese style sculptures. You can guess how strong their market is. 


They also bought watermelon and mango farms.  

A journalist in Mandalay

Earlier, a Burmese person hit a Chinese person, and he was sentenced to six months in prison. On the day of the incident, police, holding riot shields, escorted those five Chinese people to a safe place. That means Chinese people had the upper hand. We don’t like it. If a Burmese committed an assault on a Chinese, it’s sure that the Burmese would be hurt and arrested by police. I think people just don’t like discrimination.

 Dr. Hla Kyaw Zaw, a Sino-Burmese affairs analyst

The Burmese government does not follow its own laws. The authorities aren’t impartial. Chinese people can give them a bribe, so they can get better treatment. That’s why the Burmese people are upset. When Chinese people go to foreign countries the Chinese government tells them to follow the rules and regulations of the countries and to respect the relevant local cultures and to establish friendly relationships with local residents. But a businessman will have only business in their mind, so many problems usually occur. Chinese shoe shops and Chinese markets were set afire in Italy and Russia, respectively. Chinese people have good business ideas and plans, so many have have become rich. Then the local residents find those conditions intolerable. Then problems can take place because of nationalism. I think many people here hate the Chinese people. In Mandalay, Chinese have bought homes in urban areas, so many Burmese have had to move outside the city. Sometimes, governments use nationalism and racism as weapons to incite the people to violence. That depends on each government. If a government can handle the situation smoothly, there will be no problems. 

 Otherwise, there will be big problems. For instance, in the past former dictator Ne Win transformed the problem regarding scarcity of rice into anti-Chinese riots. Now, Burma suffers from poverty and it’s a big government problem. So, it is likely that the government may use racial hatred as a political weapon. The government may transform people’s anger against some groups into racial riots. I think that Burmese people clearly know who the main culprit is, and they will not be caught in the government’s trap.   I think the situation is not the same as earlier. The Burmese government led by Thein Sein has to rely on China. So, I don’t think that Burma will want to make China angry. Remember that when Burmese government troops launched a military offensive against Kokant troops, China told Burma to stop the fighting because some Chinese people had died. And the Burmese government followed China’s suggestion.

 I think that the Burmese government will try hard to solve this problem.  China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao told Burma’s leaders to ensure the security of Chinese people in Burma who follow Burma’s laws. They know about earlier cases. China’s government knows that Burmese people have a racial backlash against the Chinese. That’s why they urged the Burmese government to provide Chinese people in Burma with security.

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