“One people, two countries” used to be the motto of Yinjing in the far southwest of China.
An old tourist poster boasts a border with Myanmar made up only of “bamboo fences, ditches and dirt furrows,” a sign of the fluid economic relationship Beijing had sought to build with its neighbor.
Now the border that the BBC visited is marked by a high metal fence which runs through Ruili County in Yunnan Province. At some points it is topped with barbed wire and surveillance cameras, runs through rice fields and divides streets that were once connected.
China’s harsh lockdown measures during the pandemic initially forced the separation, but it has since been consolidated by the civil war in Myanmar, triggered by a bloody coup in 2021.
The military regime is now fighting for control of large parts of the country, including Shan State along the border with China, where it has suffered some of its heaviest losses.
This crisis on China’s doorstep – they share a border of almost 2,000 kilometres – is proving costly for the Asian country, which has invested millions of dollars in Myanmar to build a crucial trade corridor.
The ambitious plan aims to connect landlocked southwest China to the Indian Ocean via Myanmar, but the corridor has become a battleground between Myanmar rebels and the country’s military.
Warning
Beijing has leverage over both sides, but the ceasefire it negotiated in January has collapsed.
Now he has resorted to military exercises along the border and harsh words. The foreign minister, Wang Yiwas the latest diplomat to visit the capital of Myanmar, Nay Pyi Tawand is believed to have issued a warning to the country’s ruler, Min Aung Hlaing.
Conflict is nothing new in impoverished Shan State. Myanmar’s largest state is one of the world’s main sources of opium and methamphetamines. It has also long been home to ethnic armies opposed to centralized government.
But the vibrant economic zones created by Chinese investment managed to prosper… until civil war broke out.
A loudspeaker now warns Ruili residents not to get too close to the metal fence, but that doesn’t stop a Chinese tourist from sticking his arm through the bars to take a selfie.
Two little girls in Disney T-shirts shout through the bars, “Hey Grandpa, hello, look over here!” as they lick scoops of pink ice cream. The old man shuffling barefoot on the other side barely looks up before turning away.
Shelter in Ruili
“The Burmese live like dogs”says Li Mianzhen. Her corner stall sells Myanmar food and drinks – such as milk tea – in a small market just a short walk from the border checkpoint in Ruili town.
Li, who looks about 60, used to sell Chinese clothes along the border in Muse, a major source of trade with China. But he says almost no one in his village has enough money anymore.
Myanmar’s military junta still controls the town, one of its last strongholds in Shan State. But rebel forces have seized other border crossings and a key trading area on the road to Muse.
The situation has made people desperate, Li says. He knows of some who have crossed the border in order to earn as little as 10 yuan – not much more than a dollar – so they can return to Myanmar and “feed their families.”
The war has severely restricted travel in and out of Myanmar, and most of the stories now come from those who have fled or found ways to cross borders, like Li.
Unable to obtain work permits that would allow them to enter China, Li’s family is trapped in Mandalay as rebel forces close in on Myanmar’s second-largest city.
“I feel like I’m dying of anxiety,” Li says. “This war has brought us so many misfortunes. When will all this end?”
Zin Aung (name changed), 31, is among those who managed to escape. He works at an industrial park outside Ruili, which produces clothing, electronics and vehicle parts that are shipped around the world.
Workers like him are recruited in large numbers from Myanmar and transported by Chinese government-backed firms hungry for cheap labour. They are estimated to earn about 2,400 yuan ($450) a month, which is less than their Chinese counterparts.
“Everyone has to flee”
“We have nothing to do in Myanmar because of the war”“Everything is expensive,” says Zin Aung. “Rice, cooking oil. There is intense fighting everywhere. Everyone has to flee.”
His parents are too old to run away, so he did. He sends money home whenever he can.
The men live and work in the few square kilometres of the government-run compound in Ruili. Zin Aung says it is a sanctuary, compared to what they left behind: “The situation in Myanmar is not good, that is why we are seeking refuge here.”
Aung also escaped mandatory conscription, which Myanmar’s military has been enforcing to compensate for desertions and battlefield losses.
One afternoon, as the sky turned scarlet, Zin Aung ran barefoot through the mud onto a field soaked by the rainy season, ready for a different kind of battle: a fierce game of football.
Burmese, Chinese and the local Yunnan dialect mingled as spectators reacted to every pass, kick and throw. This is a daily occurrence in their new temporary home, a release after a 12-hour shift on the assembly line.
Many of the workers come from Lashio, Shan State’s largest town, and Laukkaing, home to junta-backed crime families. Laukkaing fell to rebel forces in January and Lashio was encircled, in a campaign that has changed the course of the war and China’s involvement in it.
Beijing in trouble
Both cities lie along China’s prized trade corridor and a ceasefire brokered by Beijing left Lashio in junta hands. But in recent weeks, rebel forces have pushed into the city, marking their biggest victory yet. The military has responded with bombings and drone strikes, restricting internet and mobile phone networks.
“The fall of Lashio is one of the most humiliating defeats in the history of the army”says Richard Horsey, Myanmar adviser at the International Crisis Group.
“The only reason rebel groups did not push into Muse is that they probably feared it would upset China,” Horsey says. “Fighting there would have affected investments that China has been hoping to restart for months. The regime has lost control of almost all of northern Shan State, with the exception of the Muse region, which is right next to Ruili.”
Ruili and Muse, both designated special trade zones, are crucial to the 1,700km Beijing-funded trade route known as the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor. The route also supports Chinese investments in energy, infrastructure and rare earth mining, which are crucial for the manufacturing of electric vehicles.
But at its heart is a railway line that will connect Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, to Kyaukphyu, a deepwater port the Chinese are building on Myanmar’s west coast.
Located on the Bay of Bengal, the port will provide industries in and around Ruili with access to the Indian Ocean and, therefore, to global markets. The port is also the starting point for oil and gas pipelines that will transport energy through Myanmar to Yunnan.
But these plans are now in jeopardy.
President Xi Jinping had been cultivating ties with his resource-rich neighbor for years when the country’s elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was forced from power.
Xi refused to condemn the coup and continued to sell arms to the military. However, he also did not recognise Min Aung Hlaing as head of state, nor did he invite him to China.
Three years on, the war has killed thousands and displaced millions, but there is no end in sight.
Forced to fight on new fronts, the military has since lost between half and two-thirds of Myanmar to a divided opposition.
Beijing is at a standstill. “It doesn’t like this situation” and considers Myanmar’s military chief Min Aung Hlaing “incompetent,” Horsey says. “They are pushing for elections, not necessarily because they want to return to a democratic regime, but rather because they think it is a way to go back to the way things were.”
Myanmar regime suspects Beijing is playing both sides: maintains the appearance of supporting the junta while continuing to maintain a relationship with the ethnic armies of the Shan State.
Analysts say many of the rebel groups are using Chinese weapons. The latest battles are also a revival of a campaign launched last year by three ethnic groups calling themselves the Brotherhood Alliance. The alliance is believed to have failed to make its move without Beijing’s tacit approval.
His battlefield achievements spelled the end of notorious mafia families whose rackets had ensnared thousands of Chinese workers. Beijing, long frustrated by rising lawlessness on its border, hailed his downfall, as well as the tens of thousands of suspects handed over by rebel forces.
For Beijing, the worst-case scenario is a civil war that drags on for years. But he would also fear a collapse of the military regime, which could herald further chaos.
It remains unclear how China will react to either scenario, and what else Beijing can do beyond pressuring both sides to agree to peace talks is also unclear.
Plans on hold
This complex situation is evident in Ruili, where miles of shops are closed. A town that once benefited from its border location is now suffering the consequences of its proximity to Myanmar.
Hit by some of China’s strictest lockdowns during the pandemic, businesses in the region have taken a further hit as cross-border traffic and trade have failed to pick up.
They also rely on labor from the other side, which, according to several agents who help Burmese workers find jobs, has stopped. China is said to have tightened its restrictions on hiring workers from across the border and which has also deported hundreds of people accused of working illegally.
The owner of a small factory, who did not want to be named, told the BBC that the deportations meant that his “business is going nowhere… and there’s nothing I can change.”
The square by the checkpoint is filled with young workers, including mothers with babies, waiting in the shade. They show their papers to make sure they have what they need to get a job. Those who do get a pass that allows them to work for up to a week or to travel back and forth between the two countries, like Li.
“I hope some good people can tell all sides to stop fighting,” Li said. “If there is no one in the world to stand up for us, it is really tragic.”
Li says she is often assured by those around her that fighting will not break out too close to China. But she is not convinced: “No one can predict the future.”
For now, Ruili is a safer option for her and Zin Aung. They understand that their future is in Chinese hands, just like the Chinese do.
“Your country is at war,” a Chinese tourist tells a Myanmar jade seller he is haggling with at the market. “You just take what I give you.”
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