2008 Online and Overall competition winner
Phyo is 15 and lives in Warrington. She wrote about China logging in Burma and Africa.
Made in China
China has been trading timber that has been logged in parts of South East Asia and Africa where timber laws are lax. Despite of its growing economy, China is still spurring illegal timber trade mainly from its neighbour, Burma (Myanmar).
Burma is ruled by a brutal junta, General Than Shwe’s State Peace and Developmental Council. It has been charged by the UN with a crime against humanity for systematic abuses of human rights. Global Witness estimates that illegal timber logging by Chinese chainsaws in Burma amounted to at least 1.3 million cubic metres in 2003 to 2004. So is it fair for a country with such power and economy to take advantage of a poor and unstable country?
"It’s ridiculous! They come to chop our wood with gigantic trucks everyday for a couple of times! My friend tells me that China keeps saying the furniture from the wood is made in China. They pay us so little for the wood and China’s trade is profiting a lot from our Burmese teak! They’re really ripping us off!" says U Khin Maung, Kachin state, Northern Burma.
In 2006, China has admitted that some of its companies and individual citizens are involved in illegal logging in Burma.
"We cannot deny that, driven by (their own) interests, a few of them are doing illegal logging," Qin Gang, a foreign ministry spokesman told reporters when asked about reports of illegal logging in Burma.
Global Witness calculated that a truck carrying about 15 tons of illegal timber crossed an official border checkpoint into China on average every seven minutes in 2006. Hopes continue in the Kachin State that the revelation of Burmese timber being logged in the black-market will help China making the right choice of ending this illicit trade. Perhaps now we can see that the origin of everything that proudly manifests ‘Made in China’ is not truly from China.
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Quote from the judging panel
We’d give the overall award to Phyo Htet Khaing, the 15-year-old from Warrington, for her Online contribution called ’Made in China’. Why? Phyo chose an important and little-known story about cross-border illegal logging between China and Burma, and told the story clearly. The writing is mature, and she shows an excellent appreciation of how the report might look on screen, with good use of pictures and captions, pulled-out quotes, hyperlinks to other websites and streamed video.