Residents of Myanmar\u2019s northern Shan state have destroyed a fence built by Chinese authorities they say encroaches on their country\u2019s territory, prompting observers to warn that if the dispute goes unresolved it could seriously damage relations between communities living along the two nations\u2019 shared border.<\/p>\n
Chinese officials announced last week that they planned to build a fence along the border near Hat Hin village in northern Shan state\u2019s Namkham township to prevent the cross-border transmission of the coronavirus, as well as curb drug and human trafficking. The announcement drew immediate condemnation from area residents, who claimed the barrier would encroach on as much as 0.6 acres of Myanmar territory.<\/p>\n
Despite the protest, Chinese authorities proceeded to erect the fence as planned on the evening of Sept. 12, Hat Hin village administrator Lon Ai Sum told RFA\u2019s Myanmar Service.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had already told them to stop [plans for] construction because it would take away 0.5 to 0.7 acres of our land, and at that time they agreed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen they started erecting the fence without bothering to inform us. The villagers saw them working on it about two hours later and began pulling it down in protest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lon Ai Sum said the administrator of Namkham township and other officials visited the area the next day and called for a stop to the construction so that the two governments could negotiate the dispute.<\/p>\n
Hat Hin village and Dengxiu village across the border in China\u2019s Yunnan province are both ethnic Shan villages that have coexisted peacefully for years. Earlier this year, a drainage canal was dug by the Chinese between the two villages as a border line and a fence was erected on the Chinese side, according to residents.<\/p>\n
But Hat Hin villagers said that when they saw Chinese authorities were building the barbed wire barrier past an existing fence and further into Myanmar territory, they became incensed.<\/p>\n
Nang San Kham, a resident of Hat Hin, said the land that the Chinese had now expanded into was formerly owned by villagers on the Myanmar side.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat land was not good for agriculture and so it was left fallow,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLater on, villagers from the Chinese side came to build fishponds and planted bamboo groves. They didn\u2019t listen when our village elders told them not to do it. And now they are claiming it is their land.\u201d<\/p>\n
Namkham residents, said township land had been at the center of more than one cross-border dispute in recent times.<\/p>\n
In 2013, they said, some 20 Chinese men in military uniforms planted a Chinese flag on Myanmar\u2019s side of the border near Namkham\u2019s Kone Sah village.<\/p>\n
Similarly, in October 2019, Shan parties and civil society groups protested what they said was Chinese encroachment on Myanmar territory about 60 feet between Border Posts 57 and 58 near the township\u2019s Naung Kham village.<\/p>\n
Call for coordination<\/p>\n
Sai Khun, a Shan youth leader in Namkham, told RFA that both governments need to coordinate closely to avoid further border disputes.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina has actually been carrying out a form of border demarcation\u2014it is not good to do that without negotiating with our side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are losing cultivation land. The villagers know what they are talking about as their ancestors have been living here for ages. It hurts not only our villagers but the entire country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chinese officials set up an emergency border fence and installed CCTV cameras along the border near Fai Kaung village in Pang Seng sub-township, where fighting between ethnic Kokang forces and Myanmar\u2019s military broke out last month, said a Fai Kaung resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He claimed that it was difficult for he and his fellow villagers to access their farmland as a result of the fence.<\/p>\n
And last month in Temor, an area controlled by ethnic Kachin State Special Region 1 Militias, local leaders said Chinese authorities similarly attempted to build a fence inside Myanmar territory.<\/p>\n
Maung Maung Soe, an ethnic affairs analyst who has lived in the Shweli (Ruili) Valley near the border for several years, said that if the border issue between the two countries is not resolved properly, relations between the two peoples living along the border will be seriously impacted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey already know among themselves which land belongs to whom as the area is not very large, so local authorities from both sides \u2026 should mark the land properly after negotiations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they do things unilaterally without the consent of the other, affecting local livelihoods and property, it will harm the friendship of the people on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attempts by RFA to contact the Chinese Embassy in Yangon went unanswered Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Radio Free Asia –Copyright \u00a9 1998-2016, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036Radio Free Europe–Copyright (c) 2015. RFE\/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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