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In the borderlands between southwest China and northern Myanmar, Chinese-backed large-scale infrastructure projects and development masterplans encounter friction, as unregulated trade and investment in this conflict zone exacerbate the ongoing civil war’s political chaos and uncertainty. The China-Myanmar Economic Corridor plan, part of the Chinese government’s Belt and Road Initiative, neglects the historical and ongoing linkages between Chinese capital and the commodification of land and natural resources, including timber, minerals, and water. Chinese state discourses valorize energy infrastructure projects in the name of development and modernization—the same kind of environmentally destructive projects that have displaced Myanmar’s ethnic minority communities and sparked violent outbreaks of territorial conflict between armed resistance groups and the Myanmar military. By depoliticizing the role of violence in this infrastructure-centric development, Chinese development actors promote extractive economic models for both land and labor in the borderlands.