The nature and importance of Yunnan Province, where China joins the Greater Mekong Sub-Region.
Yunnan province is the place where China meets Southeast Asia. Yunnan, the ‘cloudy south,’ ranges from the lower ranges of the Tibetan mountains in its north to the sub-tropical region of Xishuangbanna on the borders with Laos and Burma [Myanmar]. This region, Xishuangbanna (‘the land of ten thousand rice fields’) is part of what has come to be known as the ‘Golden Triangle,’ which has become notorious for drug smuggling, gun running, human trafficking and general lawlessness. With the assistance of American air assets, much of the land given over to growth of opium has been identified and the crops destroyed. However, in place of opium, drug smugglers now manufacture methamphetamines, which require only a small factory to produce in large numbers, although apparently the strong and distinctive odours associated with the manufacture means that factories must be located in the jungle for safety.
The River Mekong runs through Yunnan province, where it is known as the Lancang or ‘vigorous river.’ The province is the home of the numerous dams planned by the Chinese government to tap the power of the Mekong, irrespective of the needs of the many millions of people downstream who rely on a consistent and predictable flow of water. The government has also been involved in blasting the rapids with high explosives to facilitate the passage of cargo boats between Chinese ports and those of northern Thailand, for greater volume of trade. There have even been cargoes of oil moved up the river: the thought of the damage that an oil spill in the Mekong could cause is truly disturbing.
China is increasingly active in talks with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with a view to increasing trade and economic agreements. Chinese companies and individuals have already spread throughout the northern parts of Southeast Asia to establish businesses and to develop infrastructure projects such as roads, ports and railways. The ability to engage in wide-ranging discourse with China is the key to managing the Mekong sustainably, as well as the issue of Burma and energy security. It is Yunnan province where the principal impacts of these discussions have effects. Throughout the centuries since it was added to Chinese territory, as a result of the victorious armies of Kublai Khan’s Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, the number of Han Chinese residents of Yunnan has increased such that they now outnumber the millions of many different indigenous ethnic groups. Modern economic activities tend to minimize ethnic and cultural differences between people (although the extent to which this occurs is strongly contested) and this is happening in Yunnan as well.
