Playing with Fire: How Engagement with Illicit Economies Shapes the Survival and Resilience of Ethnic Armed Organisations in the China-Myanmar Borderlands

This article examines the relationship between the survival and resilience of ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) and their involvement in the illicit economy in the China-Myanmar borderlands of northern Shan State over time. Drawing on fieldwork conducted from 2018 to 2022 in both the China-Myanmar and Thai-Myanmar borderlands, it employs a spatiotemporal approach to explore the interactions among border openness/closure, transnational flows, EAO’s strategies, and illicit economies, including the Cold War era drug trade, the gambling industry in the early twenty-first century, and the post-Covid-19 online scams industry. The study reveals how EAOs use the border as a resource, adapting their strategies to changing political environments. It argues that these interactions are not linear but rather characterised by reciprocal influences across various historical periods. This historical overview of the interactions between non-state armed groups and illicit economies reveals the complexity of the contested borderland along the Chinese border.