While border closures have become a particular phenomenon in the face of the Epidemic, China’s fortification of its borders with its Southeast Asian neighbors has caused controversy.
In 2015, the world paid great attention to Trump‘s announcement of a 1,609-kilometer “beautiful border wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border to keep out illegal Mexican immigrants.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, China is quietly building its own border wall along the China-Myanmar and China-Vietnam borders.
“It seems to be a national project,” Carl Thayer, professor emeritus of Southeast Asian studies at the University of New South Wales, said in an interview.
The China-Vietnam border project includes work on a 4.5-meter-high steel fence along the Beilun River, according to the official Chinese media outlet Xinhua.
Built between 2012 and 2017 at a cost of about 29 million Australian dollars (150 million yuan), a Sino-Vietnamese border project is about 12 kilometers long and is reportedly intended to deter cross-border smuggling, people smuggling, drug trafficking and other acts. Since then, China has continued with subsequent projects.
In addition to this, last year Radio Free Asia and The Irrawaddy reported that China had completed a border project of about 659 kilometers along the 2,000-kilometer-long border between China and Myanmar.
In a report last year, the official Chinese media Global Times said that China needed to stop the spread of the new crown epidemic and was therefore tightening controls along the China-Myanmar border, but that the construction of a border wall could in some cases not only stop the virus from entering a country, but also keep people from leaving.
Stopping smuggling and the spread of the new crown
100 Vietnamese girls were repatriated from China to Vietnam in 2018, and many more were trafficked and not found
100 Vietnamese girls repatriated from China to Vietnam in 2018, and many more trafficked and not found
(Supplied)
Professor Thayer believes that while the fight against smuggling is not necessarily the main reason for China’s recent fortification of its borders, illegal border crossings have been a headache for both countries since the 1979 armistice.
Long-standing criminal networks in both countries, aided by local officials at the border as well as security personnel, have led to a host of problems, including the illegal trafficking of Vietnamese women to China, Professor Thayer said.
In 2018, ABC reported on more than 100 Vietnamese girls repatriated from China to Vietnam in a year, but there are many more who have been abducted and not found their way Home.
YouTube: Video blogger’s footage of border wall reinforcement at China-Myanmar border
In a Global Times report, China described the construction of the border wall as a need to continue to stop illegal border crossers in the face of the epidemic.
Vietnam has now reported about 1,500 confirmed cases of the new crown and 35 deaths, while China has confirmed more than 98,000 cases and 4,798 deaths.
Meanwhile, Myanmar has reported more than 130,000 confirmed cases and about 3,000 deaths. Last month, an outbreak among workers in Myanmar led to a second outbreak in neighboring Thailand.
In a YouTube video shot by Chinese video blogger Aki, footage can be seen of a border wall being upgraded in a Chinese and Myanmar border town, with surveillance cameras being installed on the border fence.
“Before the epidemic the border wall was still a very short wooden fence,” Aki said.
There are many other bloggers like Aki who post YouTube videos of China fortifying the border.
Workers to Vietnam make China nervous
Experts say Vietnam’s fast pace of epidemic control is why some Chinese workers are choosing to go there.
Experts say Vietnam’s rapid pace of outbreak control is why some Chinese workers are choosing to go there.
(Reuters: Kham)
In addition to the need to control the epidemic, experts say China’s efforts to build a wall along the border with Vietnam reflect its nervousness about economic issues as the population begins to move in both directions between China and Vietnam.
Tran Ly, a professor at Deakin University who studies international student employment, believes there are many reasons why Chinese workers go to Vietnam.
“Job prospects are not the only thing that attracts them; they are also attracted by the Life opportunities offered by neighboring Vietnam’s rapid economic growth, stable political environment and effective control of the epidemic,” Professor Ly said.
“Vietnam has created a favorable and safe market environment for foreign investment, attracting many manufacturing manufacturers formerly located in China to the country.”
In recent years, tens of thousands of Chinese have gone to Vietnam to work. Some 33,770 skilled Chinese workers were working legally in Vietnam before the outbreak, according to Vietnam Express.
And according to an October report by Free Asia, hundreds of Chinese workers left China to work in Vietnam, and some factories have moved their plants inside Vietnam because of the country’s economic climate.
Illegal immigration has been a problem for both China and Vietnam. In December last year, local Vietnamese media reported that at least 29 Chinese illegal immigrants were repatriated.
And last September, between just four days, more than 100 Vietnamese who had illegally gone to China to work illegally crossed back into Vietnam.
In addition to the favorable investment climate, Professor Ly believes the relocation of jobs and operators reflects geopolitical influences.
“Tensions between China and the U.S. and other countries, including the likes of Australia, have also had an impact on manufacturing companies’ decisions to relocate from China to Vietnam.”
While some Chinese workers are finding legal ways to work in Vietnam, many are crossing the border illegally, and as a result these people are also facing great difficulty in finding jobs once they arrive in Vietnam, said Prof. Ly.
Border walls in geopolitics
The Irrawaddy says the Sino-Myanmar border wall has been under construction off and on since 2018 and has long been one of the focal points of unease on both sides.
The Irrawaddy says the China-Myanmar border wall has been under construction off and on since 2018 and has long been one of the focal points of unease on both sides.
(AP: Aung Shine Oo)
The tightening of the border has not only had an impact on the flow of workers also, many critics have argued that China is targeting dissidents by building the border wall.
“It’s to stop Chinese people from leaving the country, not only workers who don’t have jobs, but other people that China doesn’t want to leave,” Professor Thayer said.
ABC tried contacting the Chinese Foreign Ministry for comment, but did not receive a response.
China’s Yunnan province, which borders Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos, has long been one of the paths Uighurs and others who want to leave China for refuge in the West would choose, according to The Diplomat, as well as one of the routes North Korean defectors have taken to escape.
The Irrawaddy reported in November that the Burmese military has also voiced opposition to China’s construction of border facilities.
Although, China has explained the recent work as a result of the epidemic, The Irrawaddy said the China-Myanmar border wall has been under construction off and on since 2018 and has long been one of the focal points of unease on both sides.
ABC also tried to seek comment from the Vietnamese and Myanmar foreign ministries.
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