Myanmar leans on China to revive gem trade

Myanmar’s military junta has signed a deal with China to stage a gemstone exhibition across the border in Jiegao, highlighting its growing reliance on Beijing to sustain a sector battered by sanctions, conflict and collapsing demand.

The memorandum of understanding was inked on 24 February between Myanmar’s Natural Resources Minister Khin Maung Yi and senior officials from Yunnan province.

Regime media said the agreement aims to boost cooperation in the gemstone trade, curb smuggling and improve environmental coordination. But the decision to host a Myanmar‑branded exhibition on Chinese soil marks a notable shift, signalling how far the junta is leaning on Beijing to keep its gemstone economy afloat.

China has long been the dominant buyer of Myanmar’s jadeite, prized for jewellery and luxury carving. For decades, stones from Kachin State flowed across the Muse‑Ruili border into China’s processing hubs. Yet the trade has been plagued by corruption, violence and deadly landslides in poorly regulated mines. Since the 2021 coup, the junta has tightened control, raiding informal markets and forcing sales through official channels.

Despite annual emporiums in Naypyitaw offering thousands of lots of jade and gems, genuine buyers have dwindled. Chinese merchants, once the backbone of the trade, have largely stayed away due to border closures, stricter financial monitoring and crackdowns on WeChat transactions. Demand collapsed further after Chinese authorities raided jade markets in Ruili in 2024.

The junta has tried to diversify, promoting pearls in Hong Kong and rubies in Nanning, but conflict has crippled mining regions. Mogoke, famed for rubies and sapphires, saw years of fighting before the military retook it in late 2025. Watchdog Global Witness estimates the coloured gemstone industry could be worth several times the official figure of $346–415 million annually, much of it controlled by military conglomerates.

Analysts say the Jiegao exhibition is designed to stabilise a collapsing industry by shifting trade closer to China’s regulatory reach. For the junta, it is a lifeline: jade and gems have long financed armed actors across northern Myanmar, and with sanctions tightening, Beijing remains the only major market willing to absorb them.

As one observer put it, “It’s nothing more than pumping money out of gemstones.” For Myanmar’s rulers, however, the deal underscores a deeper dependence on China at a time when few other options remain.

-2026-03-03