The court in Myitkyina, capital of Kachin state in the north of the country, handed down sentences to 155 Chinese citizens in total.
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The Chinese embassy in Myanmar told the state-run Beijing Times that it had protested the sentences were too severe and that it had made solemn presentations with Myanmar over the matter.
The loggers were sentenced under a 1963 law calling for jail terms of 10 years to life for anyone who steals or otherwise misuses or abuses public property.
BEIJING: China’s media regulator will ban “vulgar and damaging” reality television shows and order them to promote decent Chinese values, state news agency Xinhua said on Wednesday.
Regions along Myanmar’s porous border with the mainland have always been hotbeds for the illegal trade in timber to feed Chinese demand.
China’s Foreign Ministry said it was “extremely concerned” about the decision and had lodged a protest with Myanmar.
Since these Chinese nationals were arrested by Myanmar at the beginning of this year, China has repeatedly raised representation with Myanmar from various channels, he said.
The group were arrested in January in Kachin state, close to the Chinese border, during a military operation to crack down on illegal logging.
From 2000-2013, some 3.5 million cubic meters (123.6 million cubic feet) of Hongmu (redwood) timber was imported by China, the only country to have a specific customs code for Hongmu species indicating the country’s “global dominance of trade” in the wood, the EIA said in a report. China’s Foreign Ministry also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But some shows do not reach these high standards, it said. The embassy said the workers had been deceived by criminals from both China and Myanmar to engage in illegal logging. Chinese economic penetration is big and highly visible in northern Myanmar, and some large infrastructure and mining projects have drawn charges of being insensitive to environmental issue and local residents’ concerns.
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Reported by Kyaw Myo Min and Thinn Thiri for RFA’s Myanmar Service.
