China has imposed restrictions on rice trading along the border since the 7.9 magnitude earth quake struck Sichuan province, the birthplace of the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, on May 12, triggering shortage of rice in the 6,000 square mile Wa region, according to sources.
 
"To add to the woes, we can no longer get rice from areas west of the Salween, except by smuggling," said a Wa officer in Panghsang. "Now we are paying almost twice as much. One kilogram of rice used to cost 2.5 yuan ($0.4). Now we are paying nearly 5 yuan ($0.8)."
 
The leadership is also uncertain whether or not the annual 10,000 ton of rice donation from China will be coming this year.
 
The Wa region, dubbed the Wa Self Administered Region (SAR) by the draft constitution approved by Burma's ruling junta last month, has since time immemorial existed on rice imported from neighbouring areas.
 
Its medium of exchange till 2005 was opium, the region's major product. However, the group was pressured by China in that year to declare a drug free zone.
 
"Since then, we have strictly adhered to a 'no poppy fields' policy," he said. "But I don't know what will happen if the embargo continues."
 
Some former poppy farmers have already petitioned for a return to poppy cultivation, according to local sources when SHAN visited the area in March.
 
Burma's ruling junta has also reportedly tightened its restriction on movements of rice from one township to another, since Cyclone Nargis ravaged the Irrawaddy delta, known traditionally as the rice bowl of Burma, on May 2 and 3, ten days before the Sichuan quake, where 70,000 people died.
 
"Our truck, carrying 200 bags of rice, was stopped at Taunggyi," said a rice trader in Kunhing yesterday. "We had to unload and leave every bag of it there at the checkpoint. This has never happened before."