At a dusty border crossing on a remote section of the China-Vietnam border, Puzhai looks more like a railway crossing than an entry point into the world’s most resource-ravenous economy.
Trucks ferrying every commodity imaginable — rice, rubber, tapioca, coffee, coal and bauxite — stream across the border into the world’s fourth-largest economy. Motorcycles and machine parts rumble across in the other direction…
China needs all the raw materials it can get hold of to power an economy roaring ahead at more than 10 percent a year. And it’s at the threadbare — and unofficial — Puzhai border that resource buyers save on import duties — one way or the other. [Full Text]