China will block all efforts to internationalize the Rohingya refugee crisis because it has ambitious investment and infrastructure construction plans worth $7.3 billion in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, three different experts told TOI on Tuesday.

Rakhine has witnessed large scale violence and alleged ethnic cleansing resulting in mass migration of Rohingya Muslims to neighbouring Bangladesh, especially since August this year.

Associate research fellow Irene Chan with the China Programme in Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) said, ” China is investing in a $7.3 billion deep sea project in the Rakhine. It also has plans for an industrial park and a special economic zone in the region. I think this investment issue takes a higher precedence for the Chinese against the humanitarian issue.”