Despite the official propaganda, the China-Asean free trade agreement that came into effect on January 1, 2010, will benefit China, but is likely to disadvantage the Asean Countries.
Whilst a twenty year ceasefire still holds, there is unlikely to be peace and democracy in Burma without a political settlement that addresses ethnic minority needs and goals.
Drug control agencies have called the significant decline in opium production in Southeast Asia over the past decade a 'success story'. This casts serious doubts on this claim noting that Southeast Asia suffers from a variety of 'withdrawal symptoms' that leave little reason for optimism.
![image[node-id]](http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/files/imagecache/4teaser/reports-images/withdrawal.jpg)
![image[node-id]](http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/files/imagecache/4prefooter-project-view/reports-images/campesinos.jpg)
