Opium substitution, reciprocal control and the tensions of geoeconomic integration in the China–Myanmar Border

Xiaobo Su and Kean Fan Lim
Additional contact information
Xiaobo Su: Department of Geography, University of Oregon, USA
Kean Fan Lim: Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies, Newcastle University, UK

Environment and Planning A, 2019, vol. 51, issue 8, 1665-1683

Abstract: Over the past decade, the Chinese state has launched a strategic opium substitution program to support agricultural firms in Yunnan province to invest in northern Myanmar, which is second only to Afghanistan in drug production. These Yunnanese firms are encouraged to collaborate with or hire ex-poppy farmers to plant rubber, sugarcane, tea, corn, and other crops so that these farmers can leave the drug economy successfully. This paper examines the context and challenges of this program through a framework that highlights the tensions between geopolitics and geoeconomics. At one level, the framework demonstrates how the geopolitics–geoeconomics relationship is reinforced by reciprocal control: the promise of monetary profits has become a strategic tool for the Chinese state to implement narcotics control in northern Myanmar. At another level, however, reciprocity is manifested unevenly as not all private producers respond to this strategy in a positive and engaged manner. This unevenness inevitably generates regulatory tensions at multiple scales and underscores, in turn, how border security remains intrinsically unstable vis-a-vis attempts at geoeconomic integration.

Keywords: Reciprocal control; transnational agribusiness; China; Myanmar; geopolitics; geoeconomics; border security (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X19863066 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:51:y:2019:i:8:p:1665-1683

DOI: 10.1177/0308518X19863066

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment and Planning A
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().