Dozens of Chinese logging operators have petitioned local authorities in Yunnan to intervene over the arrests of more than 150 logging workers in Myanmar’s Kachin State and the seizure of equipment worth hundreds of million yuan. The petition, sent to authorities in the border county of Tengchong, was signed by 23 owners of logging firms that operate in the region. The owners claimed they had paid for logging licenses from a former member of the Kachin Independence Army who had since defected to the Myanmar government, and that they had declared all their timber to customs officials on both sides of the border.