This book explains how Burma's booming drug production, insurgency, and counter-insurgency interrelate-and why the country has been unable to shake off thirty years of military rule and build a modern, democratic society.

Provides poignant descriptions of the efforts of simple ethnic tribes-people to forge lives amid the larger struggles of political antagonists, drug lords, foreign interlopers and assorted other opportunists; a situation that remains painfully relevant to many in diverse locations to the present day. Bertil and Hseng Noung Lintner, and their baby daughter, born en route, spent one and a half years travelling through northern and eastern Burma, from 1985-87. Throughout their account, they describe, with rare and deep insight, the struggle by northern Burma's ethnic

Burma's pro-democracy movement emerged in 1988 when massive demonstrations swept across the country. This book gives an account of the movement, its emergence and growth, and Aung San Suu Kyi's prominent leadership role since its inception. Woven into this history is an outline of how Aung San Suu Kyi herself has become a highly respected pro-democracy icon internationally while being revered nationally as the "female Bodhisattva" who will deliver the Burmese people from the evil of the military regime. Lintner considers her strengths as well as her weaknesses, and traces her life not only in Burma, but also in India, the United Kingdom, the United States, Bhutan, and Japan. She was greatly inspired by her father, Aung San, Burma's independence hero who was assassinated when she was an infant, and also by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Lintner analyzes the staying power of Burma's military regime and points out the obstacles to achieving what Aung San Suu Kyi is striving for: a free and democratic Burma.

Bertil Lintner is a former correspondent with the "Far Eastern Economic Review" and currently Asia correspondent for the Swedish daily "Svenska Dagbladet, " as well as a contributor to Asia Times Online, Hong Kong, and Jane's Information Group in the UK. He has written seven books on Burma, among them "Outrage: Burma's Struggle for Democracy" and "Burma in Revolt: Opium and Insurgency since 1948." He lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

For centuries past, often driven by political upheaval or famine, Chinese have migrated to southeast Asia and beyond, to far flung corners of the globe. Large old 'Chinatowns' in cities such as London, Toronto, New York and San Francisco attest to these earlier migrations. Chinese continue to emigrate in large numbers in the 21st century-but this time around circumstances are different. Often encouraged and even facilitated by the Chinese state-officially or otherwise-modern migrants are often well educated and relatively affluent. And China today offers a myriad of opportunities to those who choose to stay. In this wide ranging new study, Lintner researches the locations, motives, perils and successes of modern Chinese migrants, as well as their potential impact on the rest of the globe. Is the state sponsorship of such migration driven by China's expanding needs for energy, minerals, lumber and fish-or does it include more sinister motives? What is the likely impact of such migration on China's global diplomatic muscle? To what degree are new Chinese immigrants a 'fifth column' in their new homes? What is the role of Chinese 'triad' gangsters in this modern exodus? All of these and many more issues are addressed in this timely first-hand report. A 'must read' for all China-watchers, or indeed for any who strive to understand the shifting dynamics of world power in the 21st century.

The Indian Ocean's strategic importance to China cannot be underestimated, given the oil, African minerals and container traffic that pass through it. Yet, until now, China has been absent from the region since Admiral Zheng He sailed his fleet through in the fifteenth century, exploring and mapping the waters in a bid to extend the Celestial Empire's trading and tributary system. Beijing's re-entry into the Indian Ocean after 600 years is part of Xi Jinping's 'Belt and Road' megaproject. He is investing trillions of dollars in infrastructure projects around the Ocean rim, including a military base in Djibouti. This has touched off a new and dangerous confrontation. Ranged against China is an informal alliance of India, the US, France, Australia, and, predictably, Japan--Beijing's arch-rival in the Asia-Pacific. Bertil Lintner unearths this dramatic story, profiling the key players, examining the economic and naval balance of power, and scrutinising New Delhi and Beijing's intense competition for the allegiance of small island nations. China is in the Indian Ocean for the long haul, and the entry of big-power politics into this sensitive maritime region will shape its future for decades to come.

Since the 1950s, China and India have been locked in a monumental battle for geopolitical supremacy. Chinese interest in the ethnic insurgencies in northeastern India, the still unresolved issue of the McMahon Line, the border established by the British imperial government, and competition for strategic access to the Indian Ocean have given rise to tense gamesmanship, political intrigue, and rivalry between the two Asian giants. Former Far Eastern Economic Review correspondent Bertil Lintner has drawn from his extensive personal interviews with insurgency leaders and civilians in remote tribal areas in northeastern India, newly declassified intelligence reports, and his many years of firsthand experience in Asia to chronicle this ongoing struggle. His history of the "Great Game East" is the first significant account of a regional conflict which has led to open warfare on several occasions, most notably the Sino-India border war of 1962, and will have a major impact on global affairs in the decades ahead.

A well-documented and extremely engaging account of the Burmese Communist Party that details the development of the Party and the events and forces that led to the 1989 Mutiny and subsequent fall of the CPB. This study explores the ethnic tensions that influenced the attitudes of the rank-and-file members, the support and influence of the Chinese Communist Party, the Party's involvement in the drug trade, and the complex, antagonistic relationship between the CPB and the military regime of Burma