Myanmar Border Fence - Great Wall of the South
China and Myanmar share a porous 2,227-kilometer (1,384-mile) border with China that workers and migrants cross daily. Though the two countries agreed to have joint inspections of the officially demarcated boundary every five years under the 1961 border protocol, the last review was conducted in 1995.
Yunnan, adjacent to Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam, has a border of 4,060 kilometers long. The topography and topography of the borders between Yunnan and Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam are complex, and the narrow rivers also cut many uncertain border areas. Therefore, most border fences are actually not very clear and strict. Just like the Golden Triangle, it is also full of drugs, smuggling and human trafficking.
Myanmar is China’s neighbor and one of the least developed countries in Asia. At the border between China and Myanmar, people’s lives are actually very different by the fence, and they both like to buy each other’s goods. The iron fence of transnational borders is equivalent to going abroad. Visitors can clearly see a few warning words here in China: It is strictly forbidden to cross the border fence. Myanmar people like to come to China. They like to come to China to play and shop, and they will go home after they have finished playing. Usually, jadeite, wood, scrap metal, exotic animals and drugs come from Myanmar. Cheap electrical appliances, plastic chairs, auto parts, tires, motorcycles, etc. are produced in China.
Some people are relatively thin and can directly cross the fence, while others enter the Chinese border by climbing. Myanmar is a country rich in jade and gemstones. At the same time, there are many special products in Myanmar, and the prices of Myanmar products are very low. Therefore, some Chinese tourists will buy Myanmar products by the fence. Some Burmese are dissatisfied with the Burmese soldiers at the border asking for tips, and they simply cross the fence to enter the country. Drug addicts often choose to cross the border illegally because of fear of encountering the police.
There is a relatively open border between Muji City in Myanmar and Jie Gao in Ruili, China. It is the area with the densest border markers and the most crossing passages in Yunnan Province. This has facilitated frequent personnel exchanges along the China-Myanmar border. In 1991, the State Council approved the establishment of the "Jiejiao Border Trade Zone".
Although they live across the country, the same ethnicity and customs allow them to cross the borders of dense borders. Between the new and the old, control and freedom, cities are different from the past, but thorny border issues still linger on both sides of the border and have never disappeared. For people who often travel between the two countries, the concept of borders and nations becomes blurred here.
Work began on the “Southern Great Wall” in 2020, of which 660 kilometers (410 miles) had been completed by the edn of the year Chinese authorities started erecting the border fence along three townships of the Kokang Self-administered Zone in September 2020. The fence, three meters (10 feet) high in some places, is intended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic by stopping illegal crossings in both directions, according to Chinese media.
Ngwe Doe, general administrator of Laukkai township, said Chinese authorities told him that the purpose of the fence is to prevent illegal border crossings during the height of the COVID-19 virus and that it will be removed when the pandemic is over. Chinese authorities building a fence topped with barbed-wire along China’s border with Myanmar’s Shan state to curb the spread of the coronavirus failed to hold pre-construction talks with their Myanmar counterparts and may have infringed upon the officially demarcated border line, local administrators said.
Complaints arose over whether the construction of the fence violated a border demarcation treaty the two countries signed in 1961 that prohibits the building of structures or barriers within 10 meters (33 feet) of the borderline. Temporary fences are allowed under the treaty, but permanent barriers are not. The fence did not cover entire the 39-mile-long border in Laukkai township, but rather locations where they are frequent unofficial border crossings.
The second phase of the project will be completed by the end of 2021. By then, more than 2,000 kilometers of the Myanmar-China border will be completely separated. The third phase of the project will be completed in October 2022, when high-voltage power grids will be installed on key smuggling sections. Skynet camera systems and infrared alarms will be installed in all places.
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