ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic created a number of challenges for the China-Myanmar relationship. These included issues to do with epidemic prevention at the border, network security, economics, and trade. In the process of confronting these challenges, nontraditional security factors—including public health cooperation, cybersecurity, and cross-border crime crackdowns—have gradually emerged as important drivers in the development of the China-Myanmar relationship. In the field of public health, China and Myanmar have strengthened cooperation in vaccine research and development, production, and distribution and contributed to the global fight against the epidemic. In addition, the two sides will continue to further deepen cooperation in disease prevention, medical technology exchanges, etc., and aim to jointly respond to any public health crises that may occur in the future. There is new space for cooperation and opportunities for China-Myanmar relations in the post-COVID-19 era, and the strategic value of China-Myanmar relations will only increase. Given the importance of COVID-19 in this regard, this chapter presents a detailed look at events, including Myanmar’s struggles to battle the outbreak, China’s role in providing assistance, the nature of the impacts on Chinese projects in Myanmar, and how COVID-19 affected cross-border crime.
