China still restricting trade after border gates reopen in northern Shan State

Although a ceasefire in northern Shan State allowed gates on the China-Myanmar border to reopen this month after more than a year, the Chinese government is still enforcing some restrictions on the flow of goods, local sources said. Chinese authorities in July 2024 closed the border crossing gate in Namhkam, a town occupied by the anti-junta armed group Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), for security purposes and to pressure the group into negotiating a ceasefire with the Myanmar military. Although they reopened the gate soon after the TNLA and Myanmar military reached a ceasefire agreement at the end of October this year, there are still reportedly limits in place on the outflow of Myanmar exports such as corn, paddy rice, charcoal, and silicon stones as well as on the import of food, motor oil, and consumer goods from China. “They just reopened the gate. Goods can be transported, but with restrictions,” a resident of Namkham said. China is still blocking the flow of some electronics and machinery through the gate, according to Namkham locals. The people of Namkham Township, who are mostly members of Myanmar’s Palaung—also called Ta’ang—and Shan ethnic minority communities, said they depended on the Chinese market for their livelihoods and suffered considerable economic hardship when the border gate was closed. Rice, corn, and vegetables grown by Shan people in the Shweli (Ruili) River valley and tea and charcoal produced in Palaung hill villages are mostly sold to China. “People here depend on China for their farming. Now they can’t produce much. Even if they plant, they can only grow a little rice and corn for storage. Charcoal workers have also lost income,” said Sai San, a Namkham Township resident. Some people in Namkham said they abandoned farming as a result, instead taking odd jobs moving goods from Jiegao, the Chinese town opposite Muse, northern Shan State on the border. Border fences built by China in September 2021 have forced northern Shan State villagers, who used to cross the border freely, to go through the designated crossings at the gates. View from east of the Nantaw border gate in Muse in December 2023 (Photo - Myanmar Now) China also reopened the border gates in Chin Shwe Haw and Laukkai, northern Shan State after the TNLA’s sometime ally, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), reached a ceasefire with the Myanmar army in January. The Kyansangkyawt border gate near the town of Muse also reopened in November of last year. However, both Chinese and Myanmar junta authorities have continued to impose controls on the flow of goods over the border through Muse, according to the town’s residents. “Other border gates are working quite smoothly now. Only the ones in Muse are having trouble. We can’t get any goods," one Muse resident said. Most of Muse’s approximately 140,000 people, who are mostly of Shan, Kachin, Bamar, and Palaung ethnicity, work in agriculture, construction, or the border trade. The town has previously served as a hub for the border trade and is home to three crossing points: the Nantaw, Sinphyu, and Manwein gates, with the last historically handling the greatest volume of trade goods. These days, according to Muse residents, trucks carrying goods for official use by government ministries are occasionally allowed to pass through Manwein gate, but authorities have not yet granted broader permission to truckers to carry trade goods through the gate. Even the usual small-scale trading at Sinphyu gate has been stopped, they said. “If anyone tries to bring electronics or other such items, China simply turns them back. But they don’t arrest anyone,” said a Muse resident, who claimed he was relating his first-hand experiences. “They haven’t allowed other goods either. On the Myanmar side, if goods come through, they’re confiscated.” The goods confiscated at the gate are usually declared illegal contraband and auctioned off by local authorities in Muse, according to locals. “They check Chinese websites to find the market price and then make you buy the goods back at auction at those prices,” the Muse resident said, again claiming to speak from experience. “Then they make you deposit money at the Economic Bank.” “With all these restrictions and stops, it’s even hard to get a couple of shirts,” a Muse merchant remarked. Commodity prices have almost doubled in Muse, Namkham, and the surrounding area amid the restrictions. “Take solar lights that cost about 100 yuan in China: 100 yuan is around 55,000 to 60,000 kyat [US $13.50 to $15], right? But they have to sell for about 150,000 kyat [US $37] here to be profitable,” said the Muse resident involved in the border trade. Unable to carry goods through Muse without fear of stops or confiscation, merchants have instead started to travel to the 105-Mile Trade Zone a few miles east of Muse, which is controlled jointly by the MNDAA and TNLA, as well as to the Kyansangkyawt and Chin Shwe Haw gates, also under the ethnic armed groups’ control. However, the routes to those gates are difficult to travel and require payments to the ethnic armed groups exercising control there, merchants said. The military regime has also been blocking the transport of goods elsewhere in northern Shan State since November 14, including on various routes from the Shan State capital, Lashio.

China still restricting trade after border gates reopen in northern Shan State

Following a ceasefire between the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and Myanmar military, Chinese authorities reopened border crossings that had shut down for more than a year

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