Deep in the hills of Eastern Burma, pushed to the border of China's Yunnan province north and east lies a region called Kokang. Thirty miles wide and seventy long, Kokang's northernmost point reaches the Himalayan foothills at over eight thousand feet, and drops abruptly into the southern Lao Kai plain which includes the Malipa valley. Part way down the descent sits a large settlement called Chingshan 青山, "Green Mountain." The leaders of Chingshan control a global empire worth billions of dollars in trade and finance. For centuries, they clawed their way up by hewing to a time-tested dogma: the clan comes first and last, nothing else matters. But being on top ensures that someone, anyone, can be counted on to threaten Chingshan, and to oppose it at every turn. When that happens, the clan strikes back. The leaders of Kokang must never relax their vigilance. That's the macro picture. The micro view lies in the steamy jungles and cloying cities of Southeast Asia where the real battles are fought. There is where this story takes place.

Literature