Myanmar Anti-Junta Activists Mount Boycott of Chinese Goods as Protesters Face More Repression

As protests and violent suppression by troops grind on in Myanmar, coup opponents are stepping up a campaign to make China rethink its support for the military junta, including a boycott of imports from their giant neighbor and threats against a major Chinese energy pipeline and port.

China, along with Russia, are seen as the main stumbling blocks to a meaningful response to the Myanmar crisis at the U.N. Security Council, which last month voiced concern over the state of emergency and called for the release of all those detained, but stopped short of condemning the coup. Threats to attack the dual oil and gas pipelines, which run from southwest China’s Yunnan province to a $1.3 billion deep-sea port at Kyaukpyu in southern Rakhine state along the coast of the Bay of Bengal, have emerged on social media.

The pipeline and port are part of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), a key component of Beijing’s multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of trade-facilitating infrastructure projects worldwide that is the signature initiative of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

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