China expressed its long friendship with Myanmar as 'a thousand years of pauk-phaw affection,' Huanqiu reported. Pauk-phaw means a bond as close as siblings, a symbolic term the two have traditionally used.

Ties between neighbors span history and cultural exchange, economic cooperation and border management. Behind the rhetoric of amity lie substantive agendas like trade, infrastructure and people-to-people exchange.

Southeast Asia is also a region where the Chinese diaspora is deeply rooted. Changes in state relations affect local Chinese communities' lives and economic activity directly and indirectly.

This paper relays diplomatic relations neutrally and watches what their shifts imply for Chinese communities. We balance facts and context rather than championing a particular stance.