Over the past eight years (from 2017 to 2024), Myanmar has become China’s primary external source of rare earth minerals, with a total Myanmar export value exceeding USD 4 billion.

When a nation collectively chooses the path of securitization and militarization, it inevitably incurs an opportunity cost in the development and productivity of the nation impeding for generations to come.

Since the coup in February 2021, three new rail-road-sea cross-border trade routes connecting China and Myanmar have emerged. These three routes were not initially part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and they facilitate access by China’s western provinces to the Indian Ocean and neighboring countries in the region.