With America’s Foreign Aid Program in Flux, Rivals Step Up With Aid to Earthquake-Ravaged Myanmar

America’s foes and rivals for power and influence in Asia are rushing aid into strife-torn Myanmar, reeling from an earthquake that’s taken at least 2,600 lives and counting, while President Trump promises, “We’re going to help.”As rescue workers looked for more bodies in the wreckage of the 7.7 magnitude quake centered at the ancient capital of Mandalay, China and Russia led with a flow of aid for a population long devastated by civil war, tribal revolt and an ongoing refugee crisis.Communist China, Myanmar’s northeastern neighbor, led the aid-givers with a parade of 17 trucks loaded with food, tents and medicine on their way from the airport in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, north to Mandalay, its second largest. Hong Kong, under Chinese rule, separately added medicine, electronic gear and sniffer dogs looking for more bodies, and Russia flew in medical specialists along with more electronic equipment.The number of fatalities was sure to rise in a swath extending from China’s Yunnan Province south to the Thai capital of Bangkok, where at least 10 people were killed.China’s President Xi Jinpijng extended formal condolences to the general who leads the country’s military regime, Min Aung Hlaing, while President Trump said, “It’s terrible what happened.” Mr. Trump added, “We’ve already alerted the people,” but it was not clear how or when American aid would get there or how much it would contribute after massive cuts in America’s foreign aid program.The delayed American response reflects, in part, the long, checkered history of American relations with Myanmar. President Biden renewed sanctions after General Min, who now has the titles of president and prime minister, seized power from a government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who won a Nobel peace prize for her long crusade, from prison and house arrest, against military rule.Aung San Suu Kyi is now back in prison in the capital of Naypyidaw, 170 miles north of Mandalay. Built by an earlier military regime as the new capital in place of Yangon, Naypyidaw was hit by another tremblor of 5.5 magnitude a day after the main earthquake, but she was reported not injured.While Washington hesitated, waiting possibly for a formal request from Myanmar’s government, Myanmar’s enormous northwestern neighbor, India, sent in a field hospital along with other equipment by sea and air.The State Department spokeswoman, Tammy Grimes, denied that massive cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development had compromised America’s ability to cover emergencies such as the one in Myanmar. Although Secretary of State Rubio has said USAID will cease to exist as of April 1, what’s left of America’s foreign aid program is destined to fall under the aegis of the State Department. Ms. Grimes said its “team of disaster experts” can respond “if disaster strikes” with “immediate assistance, including food and safe drinking water, needed to save lives in the aftermath of a disaster.”Others questioned, though, whether Washington was ready to jump in so quickly or effectively after thousands of USAID staffers were told by Mr. Rubio and the new head of USAID, Jeremy Lewin, that they would lose their jobs.“Those guys who knew enough to get things done are gone,” says the director of the Burmese Refugee Relief Fund, Tom Coyner, who spends much of his time in a Thai town by the Myanmar border. Moreover, he tells the Sun, “U.S. funding on which non-governmental organizations are heavily dependent on emergency aid are not getting it.”Making matters worse, Myanmar, ever since General Min and the generals around him wrested power from Aung San Suu Kyi, has been wracked by a civil war in which upwards of 70,000 people have died. On top of the civil war, a mixture of tribal groups known as the Karen are in a constant state of rebellion, and the government also has to deal with an Islamic minority, the Rohingya, more than 700,000 of whom have fled west to Bangladesh after having been forced to live in fetid camps near the border.In Bangkok, “everything shut down,” said Mr. Coyner. Judging from the collapse of several buildings that were still under construction. “There’s no way anyone could survive.”

With America’s Foreign Aid Program in Flux, Rivals Step Up With Aid to Earthquake-Ravaged Myanmar

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