China purchased typical Burmese jade paying higher prices from a Sino-Burma border jade market before the Beijing Olympic Games on August 8, Burmese jade broker sources said.
Chinese jade buyers selectively bought large amounts of the white-coloured transparent jade also called Bra-fleshed jade or Maw Seezar Jade in Burmese rather than other coloured jadeites, said Burmese jade merchants in Ying Jiang, one of the biggest raw jade markets in Yunnan province in China bordering Northern Burma.
A Kachin jade broker in Ying Jiang for five years told KNG today, "I sold a lot of Maw Seezar jade before the Olympic Games started in Beijing on August 8. The main Chinese jade buyers were from Beijing and Guangzhou and they bought typical Maw Seezar jade in Phakant by paying more than double the regular price in the Ying Jiang jade market".
The Chinese jade merchants paid between 200,000 Yuan to 300,000 Yuan for a piece of Maw Seezar Jade which is valued at over 80,000 Yuan in Phakant, the source jade mine in Phakant in Kachin State, northern Burma, a Kachin jade broker said.
According to several Kachin jade brokers and merchants in Ying Jiang, Chinese jade buyers were especially looking for 'the Bra-coloured jade for the Beijing Olympics medals' since April.
Kachin jade merchants and natives of Phakant jadeland in Kachin State also believe that the transparent-white-coloured jade decorating the Beijing Olympics gold medals are jade from Maw Seezar jade mine from Phakant.
Moreover, Kachin jade merchants in Ying Jiang and Ruili (Shweli) in Yunnan, and Guangzhou told KNG today that they believe that the jade in medals of the Beijing Olympic Games are from Phakant in Kachin State in Northern Burma. It is not true that the Olympic medal jade is from China's Qinghai province as the Chinese government has claimed.
However, China's the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) publicly declared on March 27, 2007 that the design for the medals of the Beijing Games included jade from China's Qinghai province not jadeite from Phakant in Burma.
Sources close to the biggest Chinese jade markets in Yunnan, Guangzhou and Hong Kong said, the Burmese jadeite is world-class quality but Chinese Qinghai jadeite is very low quality. It is also unpopular in China's jade markets and among customers.
Gems are the third foreign export item of the Burmese ruling junta for much needed US dollars and Euros. However, the biggest Burmese gem market is neighbouring China.
Meanwhile, a Kachin activist group, All Kachin Students and Youth Union (AKSYU) has urged visitors to China's Beijing Olympic Games not to buy any souvenir and jewellery made from Burmese jade to avoid supporting the Burmese military regime with one of its largest sources of hard cash from Phakant jade mines by releasing an online-based report, ‘Blood Jade: Burmese Gemstones and the Beijing Games' on August 4.
