"Since mid-August, violent clashes between ethnic armed groups and the Myanmar military have increased in Myanmar’s Shan State. On August 15, members of the Northern Alliance of ethnic armed groups attacked the Myanmar military’s Defence Services Technological Academy in the northern Shan State town of Pyin Oo Lwin, as well as a police outpost, a narcotics checkpoint and a key bridge on the highway to China. “We haven’t seen anything like this in decades of civil war in Myanmar,” said David Mathieson, an independent analyst in Yangon. At least 15 people were killed in the violence and over 7,000 people have fled their homes as fighting continues. “We have to flee quite frequently, but this time has been the worst,” said Maung Kyan, a local resident of a village near the town of Kutkai. Northern Alliance groups have targeted trade routes linking China’s Yunnan province to Mandalay and the rest of Myanmar, prompting the closure of two key border points at Muse and Chinshwehaw. Chinese officials have met with both sides in an attempt to stop the fighting. Northern Alliance leaders met with government representatives for peace talks in Keng Tung on August 31 but there’s been no news of progress towards a resolution. The conflict area in Northern Shan is central to the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Both the Chinese and Myanmese governments have pushed forward with development plans for the area without securing lasting peace with the ethnic armed groups in Shan State..."