Diantan and Yingjiang
The Economist
February 2, 2013
Over the border, the Kachin conflict causes headaches for China
Zhang Shengqi is nervous of the police. In Yingjiang, a Chinese county bordering on Myanmar, he asks the driver of his car to stop so he can check whether he is being followed. Mr Zhang, a Chinese Christian, smuggles food and clothing over the border into Myanmar to help Kachin refugees, many of whom share his beliefs. The Chinese authorities, torn between their support for the Myanmar government and strong local ties with the Kachin, keep a wary watch.
The fighting in Kachin state has created a series of problems for China. It worries that it might trigger a large-scale influx of refugees across the porous border into Yunnan province, where Yingjiang is located. The Kachin Independence Army (KIA), whose administrative centre in the town of Laiza lies just over the border, may be about to fall to the Burmese government army, but few expect peace. Mr Zhang and fellow activists from China are likely to remain busy in the dozens of camps inside Myanmar that house tens of thousands of refugees close to China’s border.
China wants to maintain good relations with Myanmar, not least to counter Myanmar’s recent warming of relations with America. China has big interests in energy and resources in Myanmar. Its investments there include at least $2 billion spent on oil and gas pipelines crossing Myanmar into Yunnan that are due to be completed in May. China sees this project as one of huge importance to its energy security, helping it avoid dependence on shipments coming through the Strait of Malacca. But it also wants to keep on good terms with the Kachin, who share ethnicity with minorities on the Chinese side of the border.
Most of the jade and wood that form the backbone of trade in the towns of Yingjiang county come from Kachin state. In recent years China’s burgeoning economic ties with Kachin have benefited some of the state’s inhabitants, but are also seen by some as exploitative. China does not want to fuel such resentment by siding too closely with the Burmese army in its fight against the KIA.
Mr Zhang operates in the grey zone created by these conflicting pressures. The authorities elsewhere in China are often quick to stop organised activities by people like him: “house-church” Christians who shun state-backed religious groups (Mr Zhang spent four months in jail in 2003 on charges of leaking state secrets after writing a report on the persecution of house churches). After the fighting broke out in Kachin in 2011 he moved from Beijing to Yunnan to set up an NGO to help victims of the conflict. To mobilise support he opened an account on China’s Twitter-like microblog service, Sina Weibo, under the name woai nanmin, meaning “I love refugees”. He says he raised about 100,000 yuan ($16,000) in cash donations within China last year. This month alone Chinese supporters have provided another 50,000 yuan.
Given the reluctance of China to become directly involved in the humanitarian crisis, and the Burmese government’s refusal of international aid in Kachin and Shan states, the semi-covert work of NGOs such as Mr Zhang’s play a vital role. To evade Chinese border guards he sneaks over at night, away from official crossing points (the border in Yingjiang is marked by a river). Since late last year most non-residents have been barred even from entering Nabang, the Chinese border town opposite Laiza. Nabang has been hit by stray projectiles fired by the Burmese army.
Officials have tried to keep the refugee crisis from spilling into China. On the edge of the border town of Diantan in Yingjiang’s neighbouring county of Tengchong, a Burmese activist points to dilapidated wooden houses where refugees are renting cheap accommodation. There are about 1,000 Burmese in these squalid shacks, he estimates, part of the 4,000 or so refugees who crossed into Diantan last April. The government briefly kept them in a vehicle-repair yard and provided them with food and medical help (the Chinese characters for Jesus, scrawled on one wall, are a reminder of their stay). But two or three weeks later most of them were escorted back to Myanmar to be housed in refugee camps near the border (see picture). Some camps are run by the government, some by the Kachin.
Like Myanmar, China bars access to Kachin refugees by international groups, including the UNHCR. According to Human Rights Watch, a New York-based NGO, there were between 7,000 and 10,000 Burmese refugees in Yunnan in June last year. The Chinese authorities deny reports that they have sent Kachin refugees back against their will.
Mr Zhang, the Chinese Christian, says the authorities probably know about his activities but turn a blind eye. He points out, however, that officials could be doing a lot more to help. The government has built four refugee camps around Nabang, but they remain empty. A fellow Christian activist, Hua Huiqi, says he has been visiting Myanmar to advise the Kachins on media relations. “I have been a rights activist in China and now I’ve gone international,” he says proudly. China’s tolerance for such activities is being tested.
