Ramree is an island off the largely undeveloped western coast of Burma, and it is rich in natural beauty. Just off shore, however, is a resource with extreme monetary value. The site offers Southeast Asia’s largest deposits of natural gas, estimated to be worth perhaps up to $52 billion.

The deposits are called “golden gas” by Burma’s military rulers. But for those who live near these deposits, there’s no benefit to be gained from having them there. In fact, just the opposite is true.

Citizens who live on Maday, a nearby island, say their property has been sold out from under them as part of a large Chinese gas development project aimed at tapping the resource.

The government is working to boost reserves of foreign currency and has told those citizens that they will be relocated within two years and will not be offered any compensation.

Locals live without electricity except for two hours a day while the natural gas goes out of the country and the military gets the profits.

One activist told Al Jazeera that when the government says a whole village has to relocate, there is no alternative but to comply. There is no appeal process.

The activist said local residents are passive and take no interest in the happening. Educated people are interested in the problem, but most residents are not educated and don’t have enough information or intellectual capacity to discuss it, the activist said. When they do discuss it, “they are scared”.

A 1400 kilometer pipeline will connect the village of Kyaukpyu in Burma to the bustling and growing city of Kunming in the southwestern part of China. The gas from the poor area in the poor nation will benefit development in China.

A second pipeline next to the first will carry oil to the massive nation of China as well. The oil will come to Burma from Africa and the Middle East via a new deep water port on the island. Townspeople are not allowed to see the site of the new harbor, which is located near a naval base.

In addition to the promising gas deposits, the region also has oil of its own at a site called the oil mountain, Yenang Taung.

There, local citizens pay about $1,200 to be allowed to drill, but they are not necessarily allowed to profit from any discovery. At any moment, an activist said, the government could come in and arrest people for extracting oil.

It doesn’t sit well with many around the world that a poor region with rich natural resources should soon provide energy and power for the Chinese.

Ordinary citizens will see little benefit from the money that selling these resources brings in because it will be held by the military within is oppressive regime.