China reopens gate on Myanmar border for trade, tightening restrictions at other gates

Chinese authorities lifted bans on transporting trade goods through one of three crossing points in Muse, northern Shan State on Monday, while enforcing stricter embargoes at the other two crossings, according to hauliers and traders involved in border commerce. The authorities are now allowing certain freight vehicles to transport commodities over the border at the Mant Wein gate between Ruili in China’s Yunnan Province and Muse, goods hauliers said, citing an announcement issued by the Chinese government. However, the authorities have now imposed a blanket ban on the transport of trade goods through the Sin Phyu and Nantaw gates, they said, even in small quantities or by travellers using motorcycles and other non-commercial vehicles. “We can only export goods through the Mant Wein gate. And only with their designated cargo trucks. We can't export using our private vehicles from our side anymore. Before, we could enter from Myanmar for personal, small-scale trade and now we can't,” he said. Authorities previously allowed Myanmar nationals to enter China through border gates with crossing permits or cards authorising temporary stays up to a week for small-scale trade. Under the new restrictions, however, the traders said they were not allowed to enter or stay in China for those purposes. On October 22, China placed a ban on the export of housewares, batteries, solar panels, engines, light bulbs, lamps, food items, blankets, cement, and other goods to Myanmar, but allowed the small-scale transportation of food and textiles to continue. Chinese government statement announcing a ban on transporting goods through Muse’s Sin Phyu and Nantaw border crossings while keeping the Mant Wein crossing open for trade. Despite the Chinese authorities’ opening of the Mant Wein gate, the gate remained closed according to local sources in Muse, and trade could not resume immediately because junta authorities were not prepared to monitor and direct border crossings from the Myanmar side. Residents of Muse added the other two crossings were closed for trade without clear specifications, causing confusion and difficulties for local people in conducting their business. Chinese authorities at the border had been so strict in imposing the trade bans on Monday, according to one Muse resident, that in some cases they had denied entry to travellers carrying no more than two changes of clothes. “We heard they would allow exports through Mant Wein gate, but we don't know for sure yet,” he said. “We’ll just have to follow whatever China does.” The Chinese government has tightened restrictions on trade along the 1,300-mile border with Myanmar incrementally since June. The restrictions are part of an apparent bid to pressure ethnic armed groups based near the border to cease offensive operations against Myanmar’s military, causing shortages of fuel and other necessities in the territories where the ethnic armed groups are operating. China began restricting the flow of commodities through border crossings when hostilities resumed in June between Myanmar’s military regime and the Brotherhood Alliance, a grouping of three of the ethnic armed organisations. Authorities imposed the first of these restrictions on July 9, two weeks after a Chinese government-brokered ceasefire between the Brotherhood Alliance and the junta broke down. By late October 2024 China had placed trade restrictions on border crossings in northern Shan State’s Mongla Township and Kokang Region, as well as the Wa region—a territory governed autonomously by the United Wa State Army—and Laiza, Kachin State, the site of the Kachin Independence Organisation headquarters. The areas where China has restricted trade encompass 15 separate border crossing points between Myanmar and China’s Yunnan Province. At least seven of these gates have been closed entirely, while those remaining open are now subject to strict trade restrictions, according to Myanmar Now’s sources based in Yunnan Province. During a visit to China by Myanmar junta chief Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing last week, China’s premier Li Qiang resolved that China would work to ensure the Myanmar military regime’s full control over China-Myanmar border trade.

China reopens gate on Myanmar border for trade, tightening restrictions at other gates

After slowing exports at the border in a bid to pressure anti-junta ethnic armed groups in the border areas to negotiate with the military, China has begun to allow limited trade through one gate in the border town of Muse, northern Shan State

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