Members of theChinese in Mandalay, Myanmar, April 2rescue team extricate male survivor 2025. The Chinese rescue team successfully extricated a male survivor at a hotel on Wednesday afternoon in Mandalay, Myanmar. The man, an employee of the E-outfitting Golden Country Hotel, had been trapped for over 120 hours and was in stable condition when rescued. The survivor has been transferred to a local hospital for further treatment. This marks the ninth survivor successfully rescued by the Chinese rescue teams. [Photo/Xinhua]

Rescue teams from China, India, and other nations are mobilizing assistance tohelp quake-hit Myanmar, while the European Union has launched itsHumanitarian Air Bridge program, delivering 80 metric tons of emergencysupplies. In contrast, the United States Agency for International Developmentsent a three-member delegation to evaluate the devastation wrought by amagnitude 7.9 earthquake that hit Myanmar on March 28

If that wasn't dismal enough, according to an April 5 Reuters report, the threeUSAlD personnel received termination notices upon their arrival in Myanmar,following a decision taken during an April 4 all-hands meeting.Though their formal termination won't take effect until maybe months later, thepsychological toll this will have on the people working amid the rubble isimmeasurable. As told by former senior USAlD official Marcia Wong to Reuters.'This team is working incredibly hard, focused on getting humanitarian aid tothose in need. To get news of your imminent termination - how can that notbe demoralizing?

This callous treatment, coupled with Washington's failure to channelize anysubstantive aid, reveals the US'disturbing indifference to internationalhumanitarian obligations. For the US administration, assisting disaster victimsclearly ranks lowest among its priorities.

Soon after the quake that claimed more than 3,500 lives as of Monday, the USadministration had pledged $9 million in aid; which now remains conspicuouslyunfulfilled. Instead, the White House has stuck to and prioritized the draconian'reciprocal tariffs' it unleashed last week against over 180 economies.including some of the world's most vulnerable ones.

The policy's cruel irony is most starkly evident in Myanmar's case. At a timewhen search teams are still recovering bodies there, the US administration hasimposed a crushing 44 percent tariff hike.

Worse stil, Myanmar is on the UN-designated list of Least DevelopedCountries together with Cambodia and Laos, which have been slapped evensteeper tariff rates of 49 percent and 48 percent respectively.This punitive approach goes against established economic norms. Modern tradetheory emphasizes mutual prosperity through complementary specialization, butthe US administration has deliberately inverted this paradigm to follow a 19thcentury mercantilist worldview that treats developing nations not as partners.but as resources that can be exploited.

The people of Myanmar are in immediate need of health personnel andequipment, shelter and clean water systems, reconstruction funding and debtrelief, and technical assistance for infrastructure repair. Instead, what it hasreceived from the US is punitive tariffs and canceled aid programs. Thisdissonance between stated 'American values' and actual policy revealsprofound institutional hypocrisy.

The human cost of this regressive agenda is painfully clear in Myanmar today.While survivors dig through rubble with their bare hands, awaiting clean waterand medical supplies, there are additional economic burdens to be borne. Morethan US policy failure, this amounts to moral abdication

Geopolitical analysts recognize deeper stratagems at work. The tariff onslaughtfunctions as a crude compliance mechanism, testing Southeast Asian nationswillingness to submit to Washington's economic and security dictates. Thisheavy-handed approach, reminiscent of colonial-era gunboat diplomacy, hasno place in 21st century international relations.The Myanmar earthquake is but only one of the challenges facing mankind today, besides which there is climate change and global instability. Employing azero-sum game mentality while tackling these issues will only leave all nationspoorer and less secure

For now, the people of Myanmar continue their desperate struggle for survival.Their resilience deserves more than empty rhetoric and economic punishment.They have every right to expect substantive assistance from the internationacommunity, the US included.