An aerial view of China's oil pipeline project on Made Island. The fishing town of Kyaukphyu, racked by violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in 2012, is at the heart of China's drive for new resources and trade routes. In particular, new oil and gas pipelines from Kyaukpyu connect China's southwestern province of Yunnan directly with the Indian Ocean, bypassing the narrow Malacca Strait, where a strong U.S. naval presence has long worried Chinese policymakers.
