In Mong La, a gambling town on Burma’s north-eastern border with China, business is booming. Chinese gamblers, flush with cash from the profits made from Burmese timber, gems and mines, place big bets on the turn of a card, all bills to be settled in renminbi.

It is in towns such as this that China’s increasingly cosy embrace of Burma becomes apparent: everything from the currency to the mobile phone network is Chinese, marking Mong La out as an enclave beyond the influence of the Burmese generals.

This may be an extreme example of China’s growing influence in Burma, but its pervasive investment, which provided $10bn – two-thirds of all foreign investment in Burma – over the financial year 2010-11, is part of a larger trend. It is not only worrying western politicians, who fret they are being outmanoeuvred in the race for Burma’s natural resources, but the Burmese themselves.