‘Myanmar Women Are Like Shirts’: Inside Kachin’s Chinese-Run Rare Earth Mines

In the shadow of mountains rising above Pangwa—Kachin State’s rare earth mining hub—the promise of immense wealth for investors has become a daily struggle for survival for Myanmar’s conflict-displaced women.

In Chinese-run mining camps along the border of northern Myanmar, women face two stark choices. They can take on grueling labor such as cooking or hauling pipes – known among workers as the “clean” option. Or they can accept “mixed” work, which means providing sexual favors to employers alongside less backbreaking daily tasks. Both paths come at a heavy cost.

Workers say the terms “clean” and “mixed” are now common slang inside the mines, masking the harsh reality that women are forced either to trade their bodies or endure punishing labor simply to secure employment.

More than 90 percent of women employed in those sites are forced to work in the “mixed” category, according to one Pangwa woman working at a rare earth mine.

“Most of the time, women can only secure jobs if they agree to live with the men. If they refuse and opt to work as ‘clean,’ the employers find fault with them and dismiss them within months, often without pay,” she told The Irrawaddy.

The scarcity of jobs has pushed many women to the Chinese-run mining sites, and often they end up in “mixed” arrangements. Sources inside the mines estimate that up to 90 percent of women workers are compelled to sleep with Chinese men in exchange for wages. Behind these statistics lie painful personal stories.

One 39-year-old ethnic Kachin mother of five recounted how she struggled for months without income after being displaced by conflict and separated from her husband. Mounting debts and the need to feed her children eventually forced her to into “mixed” work.

“I came to Pangwa together with three of my friends and we rented an apartment together. At first, we resisted, but one after another they finally chose to work in a ‘mixed’ position. All five of my children are students and I’m heavily in debt; I had to borrow more money to get to Pangwa.”

After two months of hardship, she ran out of money and had no choice but to work as a cook-companion. “I didn’t want to choose this path,” she said, “but when the children needed food and school fees, there was no other way.”

Mining has continued uninterrupted despite ongoing conflict in Kachin. After Pangwa was seized by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in late 2024, the lucrative extraction quickly resumed under KIA jurisdiction. Chinese businessmen have since tightened their grip, openly using the “clean” and “mixed” system to recruit women.

Male workers also describe abuses. One former worker from Myitkyina recalled witnessing a young woman forced to undergo an abortion before her Chinese employer fled back across the border.

Chinese bosses treat Myanmar women as disposable, he said. “They say that Myanmar women are like shirts that can be changed at will. This brazen statement, in my view, shows that no authority in Myanmar has the power to stop [the abuse].”

“They [bosses] claim it’s voluntary,” he told The Irrawaddy, “but everyone knows women only get jobs if they agree to sleep with them.”

The exploitation is not limited to Kachin locals. Women fleeing war in Sagaing, Magwe, and Rakhine have also ended up in these camps, trapped by debt and desperation. While the minerals extracted from Pangwa and Chipwe fetch millions on the global market and fuel modern technologies, women working there remain voiceless, their struggles buried beneath mountains carved up for profit.