Walmart Supports the Myanmar Junta?

The Myanmar (Burma) Military Junta is cracking down on pro-democracy activists. It seems like no amount of international pressure can inflict any kind of change. In fact, China, one the Myanmar Junta’s best ally is loathe to make any move to persuade the Junta to stop cracking down. I’m surprised that the media and activists have overlooked the most obvious way to publicize the crackdown in the USA and get China to pressure the junta.

China is having a crisis of confidence in their exports. I don’t need to report all of the recent news stories concerning Chinese exports. China doesn’t want any more bad news about its exports and will defend the reputation of its exports. It’s the fuel of their economic growth and if that fuel supply is slackended at all, the government’s survival could be at risk.

Not widely reported is that China imports its raw materials from around the world including Myanmar. In fact, Myanmar’s best market for exports is China. China imports many different types of raw materials from Myanmar. The profit from these export sales fall right into the hands of the military leaders in Myanmar and help to fund the crackdown on democracy protestors. It could be said that China is funding the crackdown.

Where the raw materials imported from Myamar go? They find their way into export products. Chinese companies add value to the Myanmar raw materials and the finished are exported around the world, including the US. Who is the biggest importer from China? Wal-Mart?

Wal-mart may be inadvertently giving the Myanmar Junta money to finance the Myanmar crackdown. Imagine the ramifications of that. Maybe picketing Wal-amrt stores until they can prove they are 100% Myanmar raw material free could have a serious impact. It would be difficult for Wal-mart to follow the sources of the raw materials and doing so would open the Chinese government to a lot criticism for their support of Myanmar.

At this stage, I will not shop at Wal-Mart until they can prove they are NOT supporting the Myanmar Junta. I urge you to do the same.