China casts nervous eye at erstwhile ally Myanmar

By Ben Blanchard

RUILI, China (Reuters) - The giant red poster staring over China's Wanding border crossing with Myanmar proclaims that their "brotherly feelings will last forever."

A few kilometers away, just outside the dusty frontier town of Ruili, a border village proudly tells its few visitors that Myanmar chickens cross over the rickety bamboo fence to lay their eggs in China.

But behind the bonhomie and poems of friendship, China's relationship with its impoverished southeastern neighbor and erstwhile ally formerly known as Burma is deeply troubled.

This was bought sharply into relief last August when Myanmar's military overwhelmed and disarmed the Kokang rebel group, triggering an exodus of more than 37,000 refugees into China, prompting an unusual outburst of anger from Beijing.

"I wouldn't characterize them as friends, in the way Britain and America or Australia and New Zealand could be regarded as friends. It's often a tense and difficult relationship," said Ian Storey, a fellow at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

"It's basically a marriage of convenience. The Burmese rely on China for money and armaments, and China uses its position at the U.N. Security Council to protect Burma to some extent, in return for which China gets access to the country's natural resources, and it gets a voice in ASEAN," he added.

In 1997, despite fervent U.S. and EU opposition, Myanmar joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, set up in 1967 as a bulwark against the spread of Communism in the region.

Logic may dictate that Myanmar and the generals who have run it for the last five decades or so would give unquestioning support to China.