http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=31348 Record Details Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=31348 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=31348 As trucks filled with the remnants of the Kokang army rumbled towards the Chinese border, soldiers plucked insignia from their uniforms. At their feet were green caps with the insignia of China’s People’s Armed Police border guards, ready to be put on at the check point that would place them out of reach of the Myanmar government soldiers that had just routed them. As they arrived at the invisible red line separating Myanmar from China, Chinese soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and border guard units of the People’s Armed Police (PAP) disarmed them, removed their uniforms and provided blue work suits, then took them to well guarded camps on Chinese territory. At the same time that Chinese security forces were disarming these foreign soldiers, civilian officials from Yunnan province swung into action, setting up camps, housing and feeding many of the 37,000 civilian refugees that also fled to China for safety. With considerable professionalism, China averted one of the largest refugee and security crises to occur on its borders since 1979, when over a quarter-million refugees fled Vietnam to southwest China. China Security // World Security Institute