"The town is still under construction but it already has a distinct Chinese flavor. There are Chinese restaurants, beauty salons and karaoke parlors. Chinese residents live in temporary barrack-style buildings while waiting for new apartment blocks and villas to be completed. Other buildings resemble huge warehouses and what could be offices for businesses or administration. Even the armed security guards outside some of the houses where the migrants live have Chinese characters on their armbands. But this is not yet another construction project in China. Rather, it is all happening at Shwe Kokko, an enclave on the Myanmar side of the Moei river that forms the border with Thailand some 500 kilometers northwest of Bangkok and 420 kilometers east of Yangon, Myanmar’s commercial capital. The border enclave is controlled by a local ethnic Karen warlord, Chit Thu, who has made peace with the Myanmar military and converted his armed units into an officially recognized Border Guard Force (BGF)..."