China woos Myanmar hardliners

Beijing's courting of Aye Maung, chairman of the Arakan National Party, an organisation of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists that’s riding a tide of anti-Muslim sentiment, underscores how China is taking steps to protect its strategic investments in Myanmar ahead of an unpredictable election there in November.

New oil and gas pipelines from Kyaukpyu connect China's southwestern province of Yunnan directly with the Indian Ocean, bypassing the narrow Malacca Strait, where a strong U.S. naval presence has long worried Chinese policymakers.

Chinese investments in Kyaukpyu could amount to nearly $100 billion if all the current plans, including a special economic zone, materialise over the next two decades, according to C. Raja Mohan at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Rakhine could certainly use the assistance - the state has a poverty rate of 78 percent, according to a 2014 World Bank report. Residents in Kyaukpyu say the oil and gas pipelines built so far have not given them any jobs.

"With the gas project, everyone thought that when they came, they would hire our workers," said Tun Tun Naing, a 36-year-old local activist. "But when they arrived, even their cooks were Chinese."