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The border between Myanmar and China in an area controlled on the Myanmar side by ethnic minority guerrillas is to reopen, the rebel group said on Friday, allowing for a resumption of trade including the export to China or rare earth minerals.
Myanmar’s Kachin Independence Army, or KIA, and authorities in China have both closed the border in Myanmar’s northern-most state in recent weeks, as the insurgents have seized crossing points from the Myanmar military and Chinese authorities have banned cross-border movements in the hope of stopping the fighting.
Representatives of the ethnic Kachin insurgent force, one of the most powerful groups fighting the Myanmar junta that seized power in 2021, met officials in the Chinese city of Kunming on Thursday to discuss the border, said a KIA spokesman.
“It’s true that the border gates are being opened,” KIA Information Officer Naw Bu told Radio Free Asia, adding that he did not have details of the talks in Kunming.
Residents on the border said that while gates on both sides had been opened, vehicles had yet to resume crossing and it was not clear when they would.
The Chinese Embassy in Myanmar did not respond to inquiries from RFA.
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The KIA seized five major crossing points from junta forces in recent weeks, taking full control of the border with China in its areas of operations after capturing important rare-earth and jade-mining centers, which export their output to China.
Residents of Kachin state, on the other hand, import a wide range of consumer goods and essentials from China, including fuel, and border closures have brought hardships.
China is pressing insurgent groups in northern and northeastern Myanmar to make peace with the military and it has closed its border in places controlled by insurgents on the Myanmar side to press them into talks.
In October, China refused to let civilians fleeing fighting take refuge on its side of the border.
The KIA responded with its own border closure, stopping the export of rare earths. Hla Kyaw Zaw, a Myanmar political analyst based in China, later told RFA that businessmen with interests in Kachin state’s mines had appealed to Chinese authorities to get the border open again.
Two insurgent forces in Shan state, to the southeast of Kachin state, have agreed to ceasefires and negotiations with the junta in recent days but the KIA is locked in fierce fighting to capture the major Kachin state town of Bhamo from junta forces.
A resident of the Kachin state border town of Pang War said the crossing with China was open but vehicle traffic had yet to resume.
“The gates on both sides have been opened,” said the resident, who declined to be identified for security reasons. “But so far today they haven’t let cars pass. Let’s see what happens tomorrow.”
Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA Staff.