www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
Comment

Quake-hit Myanmar could do with aid much more than tariffs right now

By Zhang Zhouxiang | China Daily | Updated: 2025-04-08 00:00
Share
Share - WeChat

Rescue teams from China, India, and other nations are mobilizing assistance to help quake-hit Myanmar, while the European Union has launched its Humanitarian Air Bridge program, delivering 80 metric tons of emergency supplies. In contrast, the United States Agency for International Development sent a three-member delegation to evaluate the devastation wrought by a magnitude 7.9 earthquake that hit Myanmar on March 28.

If that wasn't dismal enough, according to an April 5 Reuters report, the three USAID personnel received termination notices upon their arrival in Myanmar, following a decision taken during an April 4 all-hands meeting.

Though their formal termination won't take effect until maybe months later, the psychological toll this will have on the people working amid the rubble is immeasurable. As told by former senior USAID official Marcia Wong to Reuters, "This team is working incredibly hard, focused on getting humanitarian aid to those in need. To get news of your imminent termination — how can that not be demoralizing?"

This callous treatment, coupled with Washington's failure to channelize any substantive aid, reveals the US' disturbing indifference to international humanitarian obligations. For the US administration, assisting disaster victims clearly ranks lowest among its priorities.

Soon after the quake that claimed more than 3,500 lives as of Monday, the US administration had pledged $9 million in aid; which now remains conspicuously unfulfilled. Instead, the White House has stuck to and prioritized the draconian "reciprocal tariffs" it unleashed last week against over 180 economies, including some of the world's most vulnerable ones.

The policy's cruel irony is most starkly evident in Myanmar's case. At a time when search teams are still recovering bodies there, the US administration has imposed a crushing 44 percent tariff hike.

Worse still, Myanmar is on the UN-designated list of Least Developed Countries together with Cambodia and Laos, which have been slapped even steeper tariff rates of 49 percent and 48 percent respectively.

This punitive approach goes against established economic norms. Modern trade theory emphasizes mutual prosperity through complementary specialization, but the US administration has deliberately inverted this paradigm to follow a 19th century mercantilist worldview that treats developing nations not as partners, but as resources that can be exploited.

The people of Myanmar are in immediate need of health personnel and equipment, shelter and clean water systems, reconstruction funding and debt relief, and technical assistance for infrastructure repair. Instead, what it has received from the US is punitive tariffs and canceled aid programs. This dissonance between stated "American values" and actual policy reveals profound institutional hypocrisy.

The human cost of this regressive agenda is painfully clear in Myanmar today. While survivors dig through rubble with their bare hands, awaiting clean water and medical supplies, there are additional economic burdens to be borne. More than US policy failure, this amounts to moral abdication.

Geopolitical analysts recognize deeper stratagems at work. The tariff onslaught functions as a crude compliance mechanism, testing Southeast Asian nations' willingness to submit to Washington's economic and security dictates. This heavy-handed approach, reminiscent of colonial-era gunboat diplomacy, has no place in 21st century international relations.

The Myanmar earthquake is but only one of the challenges facing mankind today, besides which there is climate change and global instability. Employing a zero-sum game mentality while tackling these issues will only leave all nations poorer and less secure.

For now, the people of Myanmar continue their desperate struggle for survival. Their resilience deserves more than empty rhetoric and economic punishment. They have every right to expect substantive assistance from the international community, the US included.

 

Today's Top News

Editor's picks

Most Viewed

Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 亚洲人成综合在线播放 | 免费看黄色的网址 | 国产成人aa在线观看视频 | 国产精品久久免费观看 | 99毛片 | 66精品| 久久手机精品视频 | 那里有黄色网址 | 美女视频大全网站免费 | 怡红院免费播放全部视频 | 香港三级88久久经典 | 久久久高清免费视频 | 精品在线视频一区 | 在线观看成年人免费视频 | aa级毛片毛片免费观看久 | 亚洲第一区精品日韩在线播放 | 2021国内自拍| 日韩色在线 | 国产毛片一区二区三区精品 | 欧美日韩精品国产一区二区 | 久久国产精品久久精品国产 | 国产精品二区三区 | 国产成人女人视频在线观看 | 精品国产免费观看久久久 | 97在线视频观看 | 成人区精品一区二区毛片不卡 | 久久久久亚洲精品中文字幕 | 成人欧美一区二区三区黑人免费 | 精品成人免费一区二区在线播放 | 国产91av在线| 欧美一级片播放 | 精品国产精品久久一区免费式 | 被老外玩爽的中国美女视频 | 日本高清色本免费现在观看 | 一级v片 | 一级毛片免费 | aaa毛片免费观看 | 亚洲天堂网视频 | 色噜噜狠狠大色综合 | 欧美人在线 | 久久国产欧美另类久久久 |