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Life turned upside down in Ruili, China, the world’s strictest zero-Covid city
- Ruili, on the China-Myanmar frontier, has endured seven lockdowns that shut off border traffic, shuttered businesses and left residents short of food
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China’s 2,129km (1,323-mile) border with Myanmar traverses some of the most rugged landscapes in Asia. Mountains rise as high as 5,800 metres (19,000 feet) above sea level, fast-running rivers flow between steep cliffs, and dense forests shelter giant hornbills, snub-nosed monkeys, and elephants.
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The region has never been an economic development priority for either country, and it has few roads and even fewer large settlements. Ruili, a city in Yunnan province of a little more than a quarter of a million people located on one of the only areas of flat land, is the exception.
The city hugs the border, which divides it from Muse, a smaller city on the Myanmar side. For decades, throngs of people crossed the border every day: Myanmese workers looking for factory jobs, Chinese residents visiting relatives, and traders of both nationalities carrying a huge range of goods, some legal, some not.
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Such traffic has come to an almost complete halt.
One of the key planks of China’s zero-Covid policy, which views even a single infection as an unacceptable risk, is the closure of the country’s borders, sealing it off from a world that has for the most part decided to live with the coronavirus. Nowhere is the impact of the strategy more obvious than in Ruili.
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