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The Wall Rises: Growing Inequality and Social Differentiation along the Sino-Vietnamese Border in the Post-pandemic Era

Gangcheng Xu
p. 77-88

Abstract

This study investigates intensifying social inequality and differentiation along the Sino-Vietnamese border in Hekou County, Yunnan Province, China, following Covid-19-induced closures and the conditional reopening. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in 2023, employing the concepts of borderscape and cross-border habitus, this study examines three resident groups under normalised governance and restricted mobility. Cross-border vendors and labourers experience sharp livelihood declines but adapt through reverse trade and social networks. Local elites, leveraging relationships with the government and formal trade channels, consolidate power and prestige. Small business owners, dependent on tourism and fixed premises, face prolonged stagnation, passively guarding their shops in the hope of recovery. This border-centric approach advances anthropological understandings of post-pandemic border governance and social transformation by showing how state power, capital, and everyday practices coproduce new inequalities and adaptive strategies.

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Editor’s notes

Manuscript received on 16 April 2025. Accepted on 8 January 2026.

Excerpt

Full text document will be published online on June 2027.

Outline

Literature review
Pre-pandemic interactions among Sino-Vietnamese border residents
Impacts of Covid-19 border controls on residents
Theoretical framework: Borderscape and cross-border habitus
Borderscape
Cross-border habitus
Research methodology
Cross-border vendors and labourers: Facing hardships but retaining agency
Local elites: Consolidating prestige because of dramatic changes
Small business owners: Struggling under intensified hardships
Conclusion and discussion

First lines

In academia, borders have been widely discussed, especially amid globalisation, with scholars exploring the possibility of de-bordering (Ohmae 1995; Newman 2006). Anthropological research, however, emphasises that border regions are inherently particular and cannot be fully de-bordered. Borders are not only physical delineations of nation-states but also cognitive and social constructions shaped by historical memory, local customs, and individual practices (Kneževi Hočevar 2000; Chan 2013), creating a tension with globalisation-oriented de-bordering debates.

The Covid-19 outbreak further highlighted the separating function of borders (Ünay and Çemrek 2023). In response to imported cases from Southeast Asia, China closed its southwestern borders. In 2021, a border wall was constructed in Yunnan, physically dividing a previously fluid borderscape. Even after the conditional reopening in 2023, only a few official ports resumed operations, while pre-pandemic convenience channels, which w...

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References

Bibliographical reference

Gangcheng Xu, “The Wall Rises: Growing Inequality and Social Differentiation along the Sino-Vietnamese Border in the Post-pandemic Era”, China Perspectives, 145 | 2026, 77-88.

Electronic reference

Gangcheng Xu, “The Wall Rises: Growing Inequality and Social Differentiation along the Sino-Vietnamese Border in the Post-pandemic Era”, China Perspectives [Online], 145 | 2026, Online since 01 June 2027, connection on 14 July 2026. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/20858; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/16hkp

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About the author

Gangcheng Xu

Gangcheng Xu is a master’s student at the Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (felixxu777@gmail.com).

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Copyright

CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

The text only may be used under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) may be subject to specific use terms.

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