I’m not an expert on Myanmar issues, but I’m very interested in that. What I will say is not very professional and you can just listen. The topic will be China-Myanmar relations in transition: problems, progress and proposals. In short, it is my argument that shall we restart our bilateral relations? There are three parts of the presentation.

Everybody mentions problems. My perspective is how to understand the problems happened between us. And the progress, why I want to say about some progress? It’s just because we pay much attention to the problems. Even my argument is not so optimistic about our bilateral relations, both in short term and long term. So we must find something good to restart our relations. So how to restart our relations? I will have some new proposals.

Let’s move to the first part. How to understand the problems. I think there are some ways to understand the problems, especially as I mentioned in the morning. The first is what’s the cause of the problems? Many Chinese people think this question in a very single way: it’s China’s fault or it’s Myanmar’s fault. But it’s too simple, maybe too naïve. How about double way? We think a lot of problems happened from the China’s side. In China, there’s a saying, 责人先责己, if you want to blame somebody else, you must blame yourself first. But we must admit there are something wrong in Myanmar’s side. But it’s not enough. We must have a multi way. Maybe something wrong from Japan, maybe from the US because there are very strong competition in terms of geopolitics. So everybody, especially China should think about what’s the reason for the problems. It’s very easy. So what’s the future? Can we solve the problems in a short term or long term? I am not so optimistic. But I didn’t use the word pessimistic. So why not so optimistic?

In short term, maybe from 2010 to 2015, rapid transition of Myanmar’s democratic processes so many questions, so many problems. Even now we cannot get the real information from both sides. Yesterday afternoon, I learnt a lot from speakers from Myanmar’s side on some media’s room for Myanmar’s transition. For the media of Myanmar, they don’t know how to report the parliament activities, ethnic issues, bilateral relations, geopolitics. It’s brand new issue for the media, for Myanmar people. It’s the same issue happened in China. So both of us know each other clearly, correctly. Lack of the basis of mutual understanding, so how to promote the relations, especially even us scholars cannot make a very professional specific research. I know from the discussion, I know some mistakes made by ourselves in the short term. What about the long term? Five years from 2015 to 2020, we don’t know the direction of Myanmar’s transition, who will be the next president of Myanmar, how about the capacity of Myanmar’s bureaucratic system, how the people, the media and the civil society developed. So we don’t know. Even Myanmar people don’t know about the direction of China. A peacefully rising China or an assertive China. Because the environment is so uncertain, as a scholar, we must keep not so optimistic manners to understand our problems. So from these facts, what’s the nature of our problems? I think for Myanmar in transition is just 3 years or 4years, for China it’s also in the process of rising. So when a rising China meets a Myanmar in transition, the relations are not so symmetric, they will clash. How to coordinate the two ways? It’s a strategic task for us. That’s why I use the term restart. I will give you a not so optimistic bilateral relations of our future. But as scholars, we must promote our bilateral relations. I do find some new progress from China side. There are seven. First, I think China from top leaders to scholars to the common people, they can understand and respect Myanmar’s transition. Most of China’s people believe it’s the right direction of Myanmar’s transition. It’s very important. In the beginning it’s still a rule of military in another civilian uniform. But right now it’s OK, it’s a real direction. Second, there’re a lot of lessons learnt by China from the government, from the companies. I also know some companies in Yunnan and some SOEs, they are doing a lot of work including some public diplomacies to improve the business environment and to learn how to give more social responsibilities to the Myanmar people. So it’s already begun. We must know that but it’s still a long time for us to learn to be a very professional, mature player in social responsibilities and national responsibilities. The third progress is the multidimensional perspective to realize a new Myanmar. In the past we only knew it’s a giant government.

Right now we know it’s a new Myanmar. We must understand Myanmar in geopolitics perspective. A lot of players including India, Japan, US and China. There are indeed competition among us. We must notice that. We cannot neglect the competition beside cooperation. So a multi-dimensional perspective to understand a new Myanmar is very necessary. But right now I think it’s happening. Fourth is a diversified method to improve bilateral relations. I think scholars from China and Myanmar, from the US and Hong Kong, as they mentioned, something like foreign aids, NGO to NGO, people to people, a lot of things happened so I will not give you more details. The fifth is a more balanced mind from the bottom to up, I think, is very important for China.

At the beginning, after Misong issue, many China people believe maybe it’s a plot. China may lose Myanmar. So many pessimistic observations towards Myanmar. But right now it’s more balanced. We noticed a more balanced foreign policy of Myanmar is very necessary for itself. So it’s rational now, it’s making sense. China must learn how to win Myanmar’s respect. The mutual cooperation in a context of powers’ competition. The sixth is a new top level design and some new initiatives between us. What’s the top level design? Last year, maybe in October 25th, China’s neighborly held conference on the level of central committee, I think it’s a total strategy to our neighbor countries. The common development is also a common goal for us. So the silk road, BCII and something new. A coming progress may be LI Keqiang’s visit to Myanmar. Maybe it’s too early to talk about that. But I want to say something to Li Keqiang, although he may not know my proposals, which is my last part of my presentation. What are the proposals for a bilateral strategic relations? First, how about Sino-Myanmar S and ED. S and ED only happened between China and the US. So how about China and Myanmar? It’s a big promotion for Myanmar’s strategic position in China’s foreign policy. China and US are big powers. China and Myanmar may be big powers and middle powers. It’s a new type of neighbor relations. That’s why I call it a restart. It include strategic insurance and something like that. The second proposal, the first priority may be people to people communication. All of us notice the importance of people to people, but if you read the official documents, the political economic and security cooperation are always the first second and third. If I am Li Keqiang, I want to put the people to people communications on the first place. So a lot of ideas will be launched. The third is cooperate type of foreign aid. There are so many types of foreign aid in the world. China is one of them. China’s foreign aid mode is very successful. So the first is joint R and D. I think China should have some network for Myanmar studies. Myanmar may have some network for China studies. We can communicate with each other. My last proposal may be a campaign to know Myanmar launched by China’s scholars. Because scholars and provide a real, authentic, specific information or news to our common people. So scholars like Chen Yang, like us, can write some articles to our media. We can launch some campaigns to let some part of China people know what a new real Myanmar is. It’s the responsibility of scholars. I want to do that after this conference.

Thank you.