By Ebi Kesiena
Due to turbulent political situation and worsening coronavirus infection, over 10,000 Chinese are waiting at Ruili, a China-Myanmar border city to turn themselves in, in order to return to China, putting great pressure on the border city, as it struggles to fight imported Covid-19 cases.
The flow of Chinese, who plan to turn themselves in into China hasn’t stopped since June. An anonymous Ruili government official noted that this comes after the government started to require Chinese staying in northern Myanmar to register their identities.
Another employee from Ruili customs authorities told the Global Times that there are roughly 10,000 Chinese waiting at the border, but they are being delayed due to strict regulations.
“Only about 100 people are allowed to cross the border to Ruili each day and those people are immediately required to take a nucleic acid test and any positive case is sent to a treatment facility; negative ones to quarantine,” said the anonymous government official.
Ruili government department told the media that due to Myanmar government’s new regulation of requiring Chinese in Myanmar to register their identity, many people who chose to come back to China planned to enter through Ruili, a China-Myanmar land border port.
In a move to crack down on cross-border crimes, such as telecommunications fraud, several Chinese cities in multiple provinces, such as Hubei, Jiangxi and Henan, issued notices for Chinese with exit and entry documents issued by China to register their identity by a certain deadline.
The Tianmen government said people who turn themselves in will be dealt with lenience.
